The  Ashes  of  a  God 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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By  F.  W.  BAIN 

Trmnslated from  the  Original  Manuscriptt 

A  Digit  of  the  Moon 

And  Other  Love  Stories  from  the  Hindu 

A   Draught    of    the    Blue 

together  with 

An  Essence  of  the  Dusk 

An  Incarnation  of  the  Snow 

A  Mine  of  Faults 

The  Ashes  of  a  God 


The  Ashes  of  a  God 


Ah!  wouldst  thou  then  redream  the  love  of  yore  ? 

Bind  on  thy  heart  the  wings  of  Memory, 
And  hie  thee  to  an  unforgotten  shore 
Across  the  sea. 

O  hie  thee  to  the  land,  where,  constant  still. 
While  golden  distance  hid  the  years  to  be. 
We  watched  the  suns  go  down  behind  the  hill 
Across  the  sea. 

Now  has  our  own  Affection  sunk  to  rest; 
Set  is  the  Sun  of  love  for  thee  and  me. 
And  rows  of  Clouds  weep  in  the  wild  red  West 
Across  the  sea. 

BhArgawa 


The  Ashes  of  a  God 


Translated  from  the  Original  Manuscript 

By 

F.  W.\Bain 


Never  descrying  an  End  in  his  Infinite 
Beats  as  he  may  little  Bird  in  the  Blue. 

Waman 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

(Tbe  fintcFierbochei;  preds 

191 1 


Copyright,  1911 

BY 

F.  W.  BAIN 


ff/7 


P^/J^  ^U:^ 


Ube  fmiclierbocfier  press,  "new  ]|}*rft 


^oo3 

13/  6?  cu- 


DEDICATED 


ONE  THAT  IS  TAKEN 
AND  TWO  THAT  ARE  LEFT 


ii8(H88 


Preface 

That  mischief-making  deity,  the  god  of 
Love,  who  delights  in  getting  others  into 
trouble,  got  himself,  once  upon  a  time,'  if  we 
may  trust  the  poets,  into  trouble  of  no  ordinary 
kind.  For  seeing,  as  he  thought,  his  opportun- 
ity, he  attempted  to  inflame  Maheshwara  him- 
self with  passion  for  the  virgin  Daughter  of  the 
Snow,  who  was  standing  shyly  just  in  front  of 
him,  like  an  incarnation  of  irresistible  se- 
duction, raised  to  the  highest  power  by  the 
contrast  between  her  coarse  bark  garments 
and  the  perfect  beauty  of  the  figure  they 
enclosed.  And  then  it  was  that  the  biter  was 
bit,  and  Love  himself  was  suddenly  reduced 
to  ashes  for  his  impudence  by  a  pulverising 
glance  from  the  angry  Maheshwara's  terrible 
third  eye,  that  opened  for  an  instant,  for  un- 
happy Love's  discomfiture,  like  the  door  of  a 

vii 


viii  Preface 

blast-furnace  upon  a  moth.  And  the  pale 
young  Moon  looked  out  upon  it  all,  from  the 
hair  of  the  angry  god ;  the  pale  new  Moon,  that 
very  Digit,  who  gives  the  title  to  our  story, 
being  therein  described  as  so  superlatively 
lovely,  as  to  be  capable  of  causing  the  very  god 
of  Love  to  rise  from  his  own  ashes. 

For  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  Love's 
ashes  are  no  common  ashes:  they  have  in 
them  something  of  the  phoenix;  they  are 
always  ready  to  revive.  The  beautiful  lament 
of  Rati  (Love's  wife),  over  the  ashes  of  her 
husband  (overheard  by  KaHdas),  was  really, 
had  she  only  known,  superfluous.  He  was 
stire  to  come  to  life  again.  Or,  to  speak  plain 
English,  a  great  passion  is  immortal:  its  very 
ashes  are  never  absolutely  dead.  Breathe 
close  upon  them,  and,  as  one  of  our  own  poets 
has  said,  it  may  be  flame  will  leap.  And  this 
is  the  solid  reason  why  the  old  Hindoo  sages 
denoted  both  Love  and  Recollection  by  one 
and  the  same  word.  Memory,  remembrance, 
regret,  reminiscence; — all  these  are  clearly 
closely  akin,  near  relatives  of  Love.     What  is 


Preface  ix 

indifferent  to  us  we  soon  forget;  but  we 
remember  what  we  love,  and  the  longer,  in 
proportion  as  we  love  it  more.  And  thus  it 
comes  about,  that  the  most  formidable  ob- 
stacle to  the  would-be  sage,  the  candidate  for 
honours,  as  we  might  call  him,  in  renunciation 
of  the  world,  is  his  own  recollection,  his  mem- 
ory of  the  past. 

The  object  of  the  sage,  according  to  the  old 
Hindoo  doctrine,  is  to  become  absolute  master 
of  himself  (jitdtmd),  to  render  himself  com- 
pletely superior,  or  rather  indifferent,  to  the 
"attachment"  of  all  mundane  clogs.  The 
ordinary  mortal  is  a  prisoner,  tied,  bound 
in  bondage,  or  attached  {sakta),  to  and  by 
the  objects  of  delusion  and  sense.  Who- 
ever aims  at  emancipation  must  first,  by  a 
long  and  strenuous  course  of  penance  and 
austerity,  sever  these  attachments,  till  even 
though  he  still  remains  among  them,  they 
run  off  him  like  water  from  a  duck;  and  he 
goes  on  living,  according  to  the  classic  for- 
mtila,  like  a  wheel  that  continues  to  revolve 
when  the  original  impetus  has  ceased,  or  like  a 


X  Preface 

branch  that  goes  on  swaying  after  the  depar- 
ture of  the  bird.  He  is  awake,  as  opposed  to 
those  who  still  remain  blinded  by  illusion;  he 
is  free,  as  contrasted  with  the  bound ;  his  soul 
is  unattached.  But  now,  there  is  one  thing, 
from  which  it  may  very  well  be  doubted, 
whether  even  any  sage,  no  matter  what  his 
elevation,  was  ever  wholly  free — ^regret.  The 
strongest  soul  possesses  the  most  powerful 
recollection,  and  unless  madness  intervene,  to 
cut  the  thread  by  obliterating  memory,  there 
are  things  that  refuse  to  be  forgotten.  And 
where  recollection  is,  there  is  sure  to  be  were 
it  but  a  vestige  of  regret;  for  memory  is  love. 
And  what,  then,  is  it,  that  is  of  all  things  most 
peculiarly  the  object  of  regret ;  that  laughs  at 
all  efforts  to  reduce  it  to  oblivion  and  non- 
entity; that  refuses  to  be  driven  into  the 
oubliettes  of  any  soul?  Needless  to  say,  a 
woman.  And  therefore  it  is,  that  she  is 
regarded,  in  Oriental  mysticism,  as  beyond  all 
other  things  the  enemy  of  emancipation;  the 
clog  par  excellence;  the  fetter  of  the  soul;  the 
everlastingly  regretted,  the  unforgettable  and 


Preface  xi 

unforgotten;  the  irreducible  residuum;  the 
inextinguishable  spark  among  the  ashes  of 
the  past.  Was  it  not  Swift,  among  whose 
papers,  after  his  death,  was  found  a  packet, 
labelled  in  his  own  handwriting:  Only  a  wo- 
man's hair  ?  And  did  not  Coriolanus  find  in 
this  the  thing  to  thwart  him,  the  obstacle  that 
stood  between  his  resolution  and  the  over- 
throw of  Rome?  But  we  need  not  go  to  his- 
tory or  fiction  to  prove  a  thing  endorsed  by 
the  experience  of  almost  every  man  and 
woman  since  the  beginning  of  the  world. 
Everybody  knows,  what  one  has  said,  that 
youth  is  a  blunder:  manhood  a  struggle:  old 
age  a  regret.  Death  is  preceded  by  a  sigh; 
did  ever  anybody  die,  who  had  absolutely 
nothing  to  regret?  And  regret,  in  the 
language  of  the  old  Hindoos,  is  nothing  but  the 
ashes  oJ  dead  love,  not  utterly  extinct,  and 
therefore,  since  all  love  is  more  or  less  divine, 
the  ashes  of  a  god. 

The    ethical    value    of    India's    beautiful 
mythology  is  not  sufficiently  appreciated  in 


Xll 


Preface 


Europe,  whose  people  seem  to  think  that 
virtue  was  discovered  by  themselves,  and  have 
learned  from  Xenophanes  and  Plato,  S.  Paul, 
S.  Augustine,  and  other  shallow  politicians  to 
deny  all  morality  to  polytheism, '  condemning 
the  whole  of  antiquity  for  the  vices  of  the  old 
metropolis  of  Rome,  which  itself  was  no 
worse  than  many  modem  cities.  And  India 
is  a  survival  from  antiquity.  But  it  is  not, 
as  some  suppose,  a  sink  of  immorality;  nor  a 
barbarous  tabula  rasa,  as  others  seem  to  think, 
with  everything  to  learn  in  ethics,  on  which 
anything  may  be  written  that  you  please. 
The  arrogance  of  ignorance  is  the  cause  of 
these  misunderstandings.  The  Hindoos  have 
a  fable  that  the  chakora,  a  legendary  partridge, 
subsists  ©n  the  beams  of  the  moon:  and  the 

*The  old  argument:  there  is  immorality  in  the  stories  of  the 
gods;  ergo,  the  men  must  be  the  same,  is  a  monotheist  calumny. 
Books  like  Kingsley's  Roman  and  Teuton,  where  all. the  vice  is 
imputed  to  the  Roman,  and  all  the  virtue  to  the  Teuton,  are 
merely  an  inversion  of  the  fact.  "The  truth  is,"  says  Professor 
Lewis  Campbell  on  ^schylus,  "that  while  religious  custom  lay 
upon  the  Greeks  with  a  weight  almost  as  deep  as  life,  the  chang- 
ing clouds  of  mythology  rested  lightly  on  their  minds,  and  were 
in  their  very  nature,  to  some  extent,  the  sport  of  fancy  and 
imagination."    This  is  equally  true  of  the  Hindoos. 


Preface  xiii 

bird  is  no  bad  emblem  of  themselves.  In  the 
ruin  of  all  their  ancient  glories,  the  one  thing 
that  remains  to  them  is  the  thesaurus  of  re- 
ligion and  mjrthology  preserved,  like  palaeozoic 
flies  in  amber,  in  the  crystal  of  their  ancient 
tongue,  whose  presiding  genius  is  the  moon. 
For  with  them  it  is  not  as  with  us.  Here,  in 
the  young  nations  of  the  West,  literature  and 
religion  are  not  one  thing,  but  two,  with  es- 
sences and  origins  altogether  different  and 
distinct,  though  now  and  then,  a  Milton  or  a 
Dante  may,  by  welding  them  together,  pro- 
duce something  more  analogous  to  Indian 
poetry.  For  in  India  religion  and  literature 
are  inseparable :  they  look  back  not  to  Greece 
on  the  one  hand  and  Judaea  on  the  other,  but 
to  a  sacred  compound  of  the  two,  all  the  nearer 
because  it  is  their  very  own,  whereas  to  us 
both  Greece  and  Judaea  are  foreign,  not  only 
the  places  but  the  tongues,  and  likely  in  the 
immediate  future  to  become  still  stranger 
than  they  are.  This  is  why  nobody  can  pos- 
sibly understand  anything  of  India  who  is 
ignorant  of  Sanskrit,  which  is  the  key  to  India, 


xiv  Preface 

and  from  which  all  the  modem  local  idioms, 
be  they  Aryan  or  not,  borrow  almost  every- 
thing literary,  religious,  or  philosophical  that 
they  contain.  ^  And  this  is  just  where  all  the 
missionaries  stumble.  Few  or  none  of  them 
realise  what  it  is  they  have  against  them:  an 
obstacle  which  even  Ganesha  could  hardly 
overcome.  You  must  obliterate  the  languages 
of  India,  ancient  and  modem,  before  you  can 
alter  its  religion.  It  will  not  be  easy,  for  when 
you  have  succeeded  in  consigning  to  oblivion 
both  Sanskrit  and  Pali,  which  seems  every  day 
less  probable,  you  wiU  still  have  to  reckon 
with  the  vernaculars,  with  Tulsi  Das  and 
Tukaram,  Kabir,  and  a  score  of  other  Bibles 
of  the  Hindoo  peoples,  not  to  mention  the 
legion  of  their  legends,  stories,  proverbs, 
festivals,  and  songs.  Fed,  like  his  own  chakora, 
upon  these,  the  Hindoo  of  good  caste  finds  it 
impossible  to  reconcile  his  traditional  concep- 

*  The  dictum  of  Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling,  whose  India  is  merely 
a  misrepresented  Anglo-India,  that  there  ain't  no  Ten  Command- 
ments there,  is  superficially  a  truism,  and  essentially  a  foolish 
libel.  No  man  has  done  more  to  caricature  and  misinterpret  India, 
in  the  interests  of  military  vulgarity,  than  this  popular  writer, 
to  whom  Hindoo  India  is  a  book  with  seven  seals. 


Preface  xv 

tion  of  saintliness,  always  ascetic,  and  based 
on  renunciation,  with  the  spectacle  of  com- 
fortable missionaries,  admirably  housed,  rid- 
ing good  horses  and  possessing  coquettish 
wives  whose  ample  wardrobes  savour  not  of 
sanctity  but  of  Paris.  Buddha,  the  mission- 
ary par  excellence,  was  no  low-caste  man, 
making  a  living  out  of  his  profession,  but  an 
aristocrat  who  turned  his  back  upon  the  world ; 
and  a  dozen  English  dukes  or  earls  coming  out 
to  India  to  practise  voluntary  asceticism 
would  do  more  to  convince  the  Hindoos  of 
Christian  religion  and  sincerity  than  any 
number  of  missionary  conferences,  in  which 
the  real  obstacle  to  missionary  effort,  the  fact, 
well  known  to  the  Hindoo,  that  he  is  invited 
to  accede  to  a  religion  abandoned  by  the 
intelligence  of  Europe,  is  scrupulously  hidden 
out  of  sight.  From  every  line  of  his  old 
literature  the  Hindoo  learns  the  essence  of 
religion  better  than  any  missionary  can  teach 
him.  It  is  devotion:  of  a  woman,  to  her 
husband;  of  a  man,  to  his  duty,  his  dharma; 
his  ancestors,  his  family,  his  mother-tongue. 


XVI 


Preface 


Nothing  ever  will  persuade  a  sane  Hindoo  of 
reputable  family  to  belong  to  a  religion  which 
bids  him,  by  injunction,  sanction,  or  example, 
to  abandon  his  ancestors,  desert  his  family,  eat 
beef,  drink  spirits,  and  apply  to  the  divorce 
court.  So  it  is  that  we  see  in  India  at  the 
present  day  the  very  same  phenomenon  that 
was  exhibited  in  the  agony  of  the  ancient 
world,  when  Christianity  was  an  asylum 
for  the  outcaste  and  the  criminal  and  the 
pariah,  a  refuge  for  the  destitute,  like  Romu- 
lean  Rome  in  Livy's  legend. 

This  old  Sanskirt  language,  then,  in  which 
dwells  the  spirit  of  a  classic  paganism  not  less 
beautiful,  and  holier  than  Hellas,  pre-Christ- 
ian, idolatrous,  ^  preserves  among  other  things 
opposed  to  Western  modernism  an  element  of 
charm,  which  in  Europe  too  much  knowledge 
is  destroying:  the  element  of  distance,  of  the 
unknown,  of  that  which  is  outside  the  map, 


'  The  observations  of  Mr.  Theophilus  G.  Pinches,  on  the 
means  by  which,  in  ancient  Babylon,  "an  enlightened  mono- 
theism and  the  grossest  polytheism  could,  and  did,  exist  side  by 
side,"  apply  accurately  to  India.  {The  Old  Testament  in  the 
Light  of  the  Historical  Records  oj  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  p.  lo.) 


Preface  xvii 

beyond,  afar.  For  us,  the  time  is  gone  when, 
as  Plutarch  says,  geographers  filled  up  the 
emptinesses  beyond  the  limits  known  with 
bogs  or  deserts  or  wild  beasts.  But  Hindoo 
stories  move  in  an  enchanted  land,  a  thing 
to  dream  over  like  "the  world  as  known  to 
Homer,"  or  the  scraps  of  mythological  geo- 
graphy in  Pindar's  Odes,  when,  for  example, 
Rhodes  was  not  an  island,  but  lay  liurking, 
before  the  gods  divided  earth,  in  the  briny 
hollows  of  the  sea.  ^  And  as  we  pore  on  it,  we 
feel  ready  to  murmur  with  Voltaire,  that 
error  has  its  worth  as  well  as  truth.  Did  the 
discovery  of  America  make  up  for  the  lost 
mystery  that  brooded  like  the  spirit  over  the 
waters  of  the  dim  Atlantic,  when  even  Hiber- 
nia  was  half  a  myth,  ultra  quam  ad  occasum 
nulla  invenitur  hahitahilis  terra,  nisi  miranda 
loca  qucB  vidit  S.  Brandanus  in  Oceano?'^  The 
old  literature  of  India,  its  epics  and  itihases, 
are  the  very  home  of  mythical  geography,  of 
lotus  lands,  white  islands,  seas  of  milk,  and 
distant  hills  behind  which,  far  beyond  the  sea, 

*  Olymp.  vii.  'A pud  Bocharti  Phaleg.,  p.  184. 


XVIU 


Preface 


the  suns  go  down  to  die,  which  never  even 
Sinbad  saw.  It  is  all  one  gigantic  dream, 
fairy  tale  reduced  to  a  kind  of  system,  where 
wild  imagination  is  reality,  and  the  common- 
place is  not.  Teach  the  Hindoo  the  earth 
goes  round  the  sun;  it  may  be  so:  but  in  his 
heart  there  echoes  some  scrap  of  ancient 
poetry,  where  every  sun  descends  to  rest 
behind  the  western  hill.  Would  you  blame 
him  for  choosing  rather  to  err  with  Kalidas 
and  Walmiki,  than  go  right  with  some  ele- 
mentary manual  of  geography?  For  him, 
the  dream  is  the  reality;  and  the  spell  is 
in  the  language  in  which  these  things  are 
written:  who  does  not  know  the  language 
cannot  understand  the  spell.  Your  Mill^ 
and  your  Macaulay  argue  on  these  mat- 
ters like  blind  men  reasoning  on  colour. 
Only  that  grows  never  old,  which  never 
lived.  You  cannot  kill  a  dream,  because  it 
is  already  dead. 

"  James  Mill's  criticism  of  the  Indian  epic  is  the  most 
contemptible  thing  in  any  literature.  The  coryphoeus  of  the 
Inductive  Philosophy,  dogmatising  on  a  language  of  which 
he  could  not  even  read  a  single  word! 


Preface  xix 

Down  in  the  west  of  England,  on  the  very 
edge  of  the  sea,  I  know  a  hill,  which  had  it 
been  in  India,  pagan  India,  would  have  been 
sacred  long  ago  to  the  Daughter  of  the  Snow ; 
so  exactly  does  its  giant  sweep  of  smooth  green 
turf  resemble  the  outline  of  a  colossal  woman's 
breast.  And  there  on  a  yellow  evening,  I  lay 
and  mused.  And  I  said  to  my  own  soul: 
This  is  not  quite  the  golden  glow  of  my  Indian 
Eve,  for  it  is  just  a  little  chilly;  and  yet, 
yonder  is  a  hill  worthy  to  be  haunted  by 
Parwati  herself.  Only  the  flowers  would  all 
be  strange  to  her;  for  certainly  she  would 
not  recognise  these  primroses  and  buttercups, 
this  gorse.  And  yet,  some  things  might 
deceive  her;  for  surely  she  would  take  Lundy 
Island  for  the  very  western  mountain,  behind 
which  at  this  very  moment  the  sun  is  going 
down. 

And  as  I  pondered  on  her  and  her  husband, 
all  at  once  I  exclaimed:  O  Wearer  of  the 
Moony  Tire,  who  art  thyself  the  Past,  the 
Present,  and  the  Future,  didst  thou  for  aU 
thy  knowledge  of  Time's  secrets  ever  dream 


XX  Preface 

that  one  day  thy  worshippers  would  all  fall 
under  the  direction  of  this  misty  little  island 
in  a  far-off  northern  sea?  Was  it  irony  in 
the  Creator,  who  makes  and  ruins  even  worlds 
in  sport,  to  subject  thy  dreaming  millions  to 
the  Western  men  of  business,  less  like  them 
than  any  other  people  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth?  Had  India's  gods  deserted  her,  as 
once  Judaea's  did,  or  wert  thou  buried  in  a 
thousand  years  of  Yog,  when  the  Moguls  and 
Marathas,  the  CHves  and  the  Dupleix  were 
fighting  for  the  heavy  crown  glittering  with 
barbaric  pearl  and  gold?  And  yet,  what  use 
in  asking,  since  doubtless  thou  art  far  away 
among  thy  own  Himalaya's  still  undiscovered 
snows. 

And  as  I  spoke,  I  looked,  and  lo!  there  be- 
fore me  was  the  almost  imperceptible  Digit  of 
the  Moon,  hanging  low  in  the  evening  sky 
just  over  Lundy  Island  and  the  sea.  And 
instantly  I  exclaimed:  Aha!  Maheshwara,  I 
was  wrong,  and  I  utterly  forgot  thy  quality 
of  imiversal  presence,  for  sure  I  am  that  where 
thy  Digit  is,  thou  art  thyself  not  far  away. 


Preface  xxi 

So  then  tell  me,  was  it  thy  wish  to  punish  thy 
devotees,  or  was  it  by  thy  negligence  they 
fell?    And  what  shall  be  the  end? 

And  as  I  gazed  upon  the  Moon,  I  heard  the 
laughter  of  the  deity  in  the  thunder  of  the 
waves.  And  presently  he  said:  Foolish 
Western,  there  are  many  other  things  thou 
hast  forgotten,  as  well  as  my  ubiquity.  Dost 
thou  not  remember  what  one  of  thy  own 
philosophers  has  said :  Osbq  amkioq,  a.kl(x  8'  eXoiJievou? 
Or  hast  thou  actually  forgotten  the  wisdom 
of  all  my  own  old  Hindoo  sages,  that  thou 
wouldst  saddle  the  responsibility  for  the 
ripening  of  the  fruit  of  works,  on  me?  As 
my  people's  works  have  been,  so  is  their 
condition:  they  are  but  gathering  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  their  own  wrong-doing  in  a  previous 
existence.  And  the  crimes  of  a  former  birth 
dog  them  like  death,  and  lie  on  them  like  a 
shadow:  they  only  have  themselves  to  blame, 
and  now  there  is  no  help  for  it,  but  in  them- 
selves. And  they  must  work  out  their  own 
emancipation,  not  by  petulance  and  violence, 
but  by  penance  and  austerity. 


xxu 


Preface 


And  I  listened  in  silence  to  the  deity,  and 
when  he  finished,  I  looked  up.  And  after  a 
while,  I  said  to  myself;  Now,  surely,  that 
crystal  moon  is  the  diadem  of  deity;  and  the 
voice  of  God  is  the  murmur  of  the  sea. 

Christmas,  igio 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A  Mountain  of  Merit i 

A  Fetter  of  the  Soul 37 

The  Waves  of  Time i43 


.y 


A  Mountain  of  Merit 


Where  the  Snows  that  fall  on  the  Icy  Wall 

Leave  all  the  tall  peaks  bare, 
J  heard  the  Mountain  Spirits  call 

That  travel  upon  the  air. 

Chaitya 


A  Mountain  of  Merit 


INVOCATION 


Sinking  in  the  waves  of  time,  0  skull-adorned 
demolisher  of  Daksha,  ^  we  cling  to  the  worship 
of  the  beauty  of  thy  moony  tire,  whose  silver 
lustre  steals  like  a  woman  of  good  family  fear- 
fully through  the  shadows  of  the  forest  of  thy 
hair,  to  fall  at  last  like  a  blue  and  ashy  bene- 
diction upon  the  mountain-backs  of  the  three 
great  worlds,  lying  prostrate  in  a  sdshtdnga^ 
devotion  at  thy  feet. 


Far  away  in  the  northern  quarter,  half- 
hidden  in  Himalaya's  shaggy  sides,  there  lies  a 

» *.  e.  Maheshwara. 

'  That  is,  so  as  to  touch  the  ground  with  all  eight  parts  of  the 
body  at  once. 

3 


4  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

holy  bathing-place  and  favoured  haunt  of 
Hara,  where  Ganga  leaps  down  through  a 
rocky  chasm  in  the  Lord  of  Hills,  and  rushes 
out  into  the  plain,  white  as  it  were  with  foamy 
laughter  at  the  thought  of  her  coming  union 
with  Yamuna  and  the  sea.  And  there  one 
evening  long  ago  it  happened,  that  two 
Brahmans  were  engaged  in  a  dispute  upon  the 
bank  of  that  very  sacred  stream,  having 
quarrelled  on  a  question  of  precedence.  And 
long  they  wrangled  idly,  each  claiming  a 
superiority  in  status  which  neither  would 
allow.  And  finally  one  said:  Enough  of  this 
absurdity!  Who  but  a  blind  man  argues  as 
to  the  shining  of  the  sun  at  noon?  Or  how 
can  thy  family  contend  in  excellence  with 
mine,  which  is  in  the  gotra  of  Agastya?  Then 
said  the  other  scornfully:  Thou  art  the  proof 
of  thy  own  asseveration,  and  as  I  think,  the 
very  Balakhilyas  ^  must  have  been  the  original 
progenitors  of  such  a  pigmy  as  thyself.  And 
the  other  answered  angrily ;  Better  the  pigmy 
body  of  Agastya  than  a  pigmy  soul  enclosed  in 

'  Legendary  dwarfs.    Agastya  was  a  very  little  man. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  5 

the  worthless  bulk  of  such  a  pashu '  as  thyself. 
And  immediately  his  opponent  ran  upon  him, 
and  gave  him  a  kick.  And  he  exclaimed: 
Ha!  dost  thou  call  me  pashu?  then  taste  my 
hoof.  But  as  to  thy  Agastya,  a  fig  for  him! 
What  is  he  to  me,  who  am  just  about  to  earn 
emancipation  by  a  series  of  extraordinary 
penances,  worthy  to  extort  the  admiration  of 
Pashupati^  himself.? 

So  as  those  boobies  wrangled,  it  happened, 
by  the  decree  of  destiny,  that  that  very  Lord 
of  Creatures  animate  and  inanimate  was 
passing  in  the  air,  only  just  above  them,  as  he 
roamed  towards  Kailas  with  Gauri  in  his 
arms,  on  his  way  back  from  a  visit  to  Ujjayini, 
one  of  his  earthly  homes,  whose  palaces  seem 
to  laugh  at  their  rivals  in  the  sky.  And  as  he 
listened  to  the  squabble,  all  at  once  he  uttered 
a  solitary  shout  of  laughter.  And  instantly, 
those  two  very  foolish  disputants  took  to 
their  heels,  and  fled  away  at  full  speed  in 
opposite  directions,  taking  his  laughter  for  a 

'  i.  e.  an  animal,  a  brute;  a  synonym  for  the  absence  of  all 
culture  and  intelligence. 

»  The  Lord  of  Animals,  *.  e.  Shiwa,  is  the  ascetic  par  excellence. 


6  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

thunderbolt.  And  seeing  them  go,  the 
Daughter  of  the  Mountain  said  to  her  lord: 
Well  might  thy  laughter  be  aroused  by  the 
exceedingly  contemptible  behaviour  of  that 
pair  of  silly  Brahmans.  Then  said  Mahesh- 
wara:  Nay,  it  was  not  that  which  caused  my 
laughter.  For  these  ridiculous  mortals  com- 
monly dispute  in  precisely  this  manner, 
making  use  of  abuse,  and  even  blows,  instead 
of  reasoning,  blinded  by  vanity  and  arrogance 
and  passion.  And  if  I  were  to  laugh  at  every 
instance  of  the  kind,  I  should  never  stop 
laughing,  night  or  day.  For  there  is  no  end 
to  just  such  arguments  as  these.  Then  said 
Parwati :  At  what  then  didst  thou  laugh  ?  And 
the  moony-crested  god  said  slowly :  I  laughed, 
to  think  of  the  amazing  self -ignorance  of  that 
big  boasting  Brahman.  For  he  is  the  very 
man,  who  in  one  of  his  former  incarnations 
so  egregiously  failed,  in  exactly  such  an  effort 
of  asceticism  as  that  which  he  described  him- 
self now  just  about  to  undergo,  though  he  has 
utterly  forgotten  all  about  it,  and  never  even 
dreams  that  he  is  travelling  fast,  not  towards 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  7 

emancipation,  but  away  from  it:  since  all  his 
acts  in  recent  births  are  nothing  but  so  many 
steps  downward  into  the  abyss  of  reincarnation, 
out  of  which  he  will  not  find  it  so  easy,  again 
to  reascend.  For  when  a  soul  is  on  the  down- 
ward path,  nothing  in  the  world  is  so  difficult 
as  to  alter  its  direction  into  that  of  the  ascent, 
or  even  to  stop  at  all;  seeing  that  every  fresh 
error  adds  weight  to  its  burden,  and  impetus 
to  its  speed.  And  if  he  only  knew  it,  this 
down-goer  would  be  utterly  appalled  at  the 
prospect  of  the  innumerable  myriads  of  years 
that  lie  before  him,  stretching  away  like  a 
never-ending  desert  of  waterless  sand,  through 
which  he  must  absolutely  pass,  in  birth  after 
birth,  each  terminated  by  a  death,  before 
he  will  succeed  in  changing  his  tendency  to 
darkness.  For  the  waves  of  the  sea  of  works 
are  over  his  head,  and  he  resembles  a  stone, 
sinking  continuously  down,  down,  in  a  bottom- 
less and  clammy  slough  of  evil,  created  by 
himself. 

Then  said  Pdrwati :  And  what  then  was  this 
old  endeavour,  the  very  recollection  of  whose 


8  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

contrast  with  his  brag  so  moved  thy  laughter? 
And  the  god  said:  It  is  a  long  story,  and 
travelling  at  this  pace,  if  I  begin  it,  we  shall 
arrive  at  Kaild,s  long  before  it  ends.  But,  if 
as  it  seems,  I  must  absolutely  tell  thee  all 
about  it,  I  will  regulate  the  speed  of  our 
advance,  so  as  to  keep  pace  with  the  move- 
ment of  the  tale,  ordering  matters  so,  as  to 
arrive  at  Kailas  and  the  conclusion  of  the  tale 
exactly  at  the  same  moment.  Moreover,  it 
would  be  a  shame  to  hurry.  For  I  love  to 
watch  the  lustre  of  my  moon,  noiselessly 
stealing  like  a  thief  into  the  shadowy  gorges 
of  thy  father's  huge  valleys,  and  stripping 
from  his  sides  that  carpet  of  rich  colour  which 
the  setting  sun  bestows  upon  them,  to  spread 
over  them  instead  that  cold  and  melancholy 
pallor  of  her  own,  which  resembles  an  atmo- 
sphere of  the  camphor  of  death. 


II 


Know  then,  O  thou  Snowy  One,  that  long 
ago,  in  a  former  birth,  this  boaster  was  a 
Brahman,  and  his  name  was  Trishodadhi, '  and 
he  was,  by  hereditary  descent,  the  minister 
of  a  king,  named  Ruru.  And  as  it  happened. 
King  Ruru  was  a  spoiled  child.  And  then, 
being  betrayed  by  his  queen  in  his  youth,  he 
fell  into  a  violent  hatred  of  aU  women,  that, 
strange  to  say!  exhibited  itself  in  the  form  of 
love.  For  wishing  as  it  were  to  wreak  his 
vengeance  on  the  whole  sex  for  the  crime  of 
one,  he  began  like  a  mad  bee  to  rove  furiously 
from  flower  to  flower,  making  love  to  every  wo- 
man in  the  world  that  took  his  fancy,  and  then 
throwing  her  away  as  soon  as  won — taking  all 

'  i.  e.  an  ocean  of  thirst.   This  thirst,  trishd,  is  the  technical  name 
or  what  Schopenhauer  calls  the  wiU  to  live  (vitai  semper  hiantes). 

9 


10  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

possible  pains  to  obtain  the  love  of  each,  only 
to  flout  her,  the  moment  it  was  his.  And  like 
a  deadly  plague,  he  gradually  corrupted  the 
women  of  his  kingdom,  who  nearly  all  found 
him  irresistible,  not  merely  because  he  was  a 
king,  but  still  more  because  of  his  extra- 
ordinary beauty,  being  as  he  was  a  good  thing 
changed  and  converted  into  evil  by  the  mis- 
conduct of  his  wife.  And  he  was  dreaded  by 
the  husbands  and  fathers  of  his  kingdom,  and 
above  all  by  his  minister,  Trishodadhi.  For 
Trishodadhi  possessed  a  wife  much  younger 
than  himself,  and  recently  married,  named 
Watsatari.^  And  she  was  well  named,  re- 
sembling, in  youth  and  beauty,  the  horns  of 
the  new  moon;  and  she  hovered  between  the 
charm  of  the  woman  and  the  child,  as  the  moon 
does  between  the  two  incomparable  moments 
of  delicate  epiphany  and  round  perfection. 
And  yet,  unlike  the  moon,  she  was  always 
invisible   to   everybody,    save   only   himself. 


'  Watsa  is  a  term  of  endearment,  equivalent  to  our  "darling"; 
the  whole  word  means  "a  heifer."  [Pronounce  each  a  like  the 
«  in  hut.] 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  ii 

For  his  natural  jealousy,  which  was  extreme, 
was  accentuated  by  her  extraordinary  beauty, 
and  his  own  age.  And  fearing  all  the  men  in 
the  world,  above  all  he  feared  the  king,  and 
passed  his  life  perpetually  trembling  lest 
Ruru  should  set  eyes  on  her;  and  he  kept  her 
very  scrupulously  hidden,  like  a  priceless 
pearl,  from  all  eyes  but  his  own.  And  though 
he  doted  on  her,  yet  against  his  will  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  her  much  alone,  for  all  the 
burden  of  the  state  was  thrown  upon  his 
shoulders  by  the  king,  who  utterly  neglected 
all  affairs,  intent  on  nothing  but  pursuing 
his  amours.  And  being  thus  preoccupied, 
Trishodadhi  had  only  his  intervals  of  leis- 
ure for  his  wife.  And  yet,  all  the  while 
he  was  not  near  her,  he  was  everlastingly 
tormented  by  his  jealousy  and  fear,  which 
like  busy  painters  drew  him  endless  rows 
of  pictures  of  his  wife,  surrounded  in  his 
absence  by  innumerable  lovers,  created 
out  of  nothing  by  his  own  imagina- 
tion, and  all,  as  it  were,  but  so  many 
copies  of  the  king;  as  if,  like  the  slayer  of 


12  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

Kamsa/  King  Ruru  possessed  the  power  of 
self -multiplication,  appearing  in  just  as  many 
bodies  as  he  pleased.  And  though  Watsatari 
was  in  reality  purer  than  a  tear,  he  was 
haunted  by  a  swarm  of  suspicions,  which  like 
bees  buzzed  for  ever  in  the  ear  of  his  uneasy 
soul,  and  drove  him  almost  into  madness, 
while  like  a  gardener  he  strove  to  preserve 
his  blue  honey-laden  lotus  from  the  onslaughts 
of  their  importunate  and  greedy  troops.  And 
in  order  to  place  her  as  far  as  possible  beyond 
the  reach  of  any  danger,  he  kept  her  in  a 
residence  that  resembled  a  fortress,  and  shut 
her  in  a  garden,  surrounded  by  a  lofty  wall. 
And  he  never  went  to  see  her  without  quiver- 
ing with  anxiety,  lest  he  should  discover,  on 
arriving,  that  what  he  was  always  fearing  had 
actually  come  to  pass.  And  so  in  fact  it  did. 
For  one  day,  returning  from  his  duties  long 
before  he  was  accustomed,  as  if  destiny  had 
determined  to  gratify  his  apprehensions,  when 


'».  e.  Krishna;  who  solved  Plato's  old  difficulty  of  the  One  and 
the  Many,  by  "keeping  company"  with  each  of  his  love-sick 
milkmaids  at  once. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  13 

he  entered  the  garden,  where  his  wife  was  in  the 
habit  of  wandering  for  her  diversion,  he  looked, 
and  saw  her,  in  the  very  arms  of  the  king. 

So  when  he  saw  it,  Trishodadhi  stood  for  a 
single  instant,  silent,  gazing  at  that  pair  with 
eyes  that  were  suddenly  filled  to  the  very  brim, 
first  with  amazement,  and  then  with  anguish, 
and  next  with  anger,  and  finally  with  ice. 
And  then  he  turned  away,  saying  slowly  to 
himself:  Miserable  wretches,  what  after  all  is 
the  use  of  astonishment,  or  pity  for  myself,  or 
even  wrath  with  you?  It  is  not  you  that  are 
to  blame,  obeying  as  ye  do  the  incorrigible 
instincts  of  your  sex  and  your  depravity,  and 
rewarding  one  who  has  loaded  both  of  you 
with  benefits  with  the  blackness  of  ingratitude. 
But  it  is  rather  I  myself  who  am  to  blame,  for 
putting  any  faith  whatever,  were  it  fleeting  as 
a  jot  of  time,  in  this  treacherous  and  unsub- 
stantial world,  filled  full  to  the  very  brim  with 
lovers  and  women,  snakes  and  tigers,  and 
betrayers  and  betrayed;  on  which  I  will  this 
very  instant  turn  my  back  for  ever,  as  indeed, 
had  I  not  been  utterly  blinded  by  passion  and 


14  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

delusion,  I  should  have  done  already,  long  ago. 
And  even  as  he  said,  so  he  did.  And  he  went 
straight  away,  there  and  then,  never  to  return. 
And  abandoning  his  wife  and  his  office  and 
his  home,  counting  them  all  as  grass,  he  threw 
away  his  skin,  like  a  snake,  and  becoming  a 
pilgrim,  turned  his  steps,  without  losing  a  sin- 
gle instant,  to  the  wilderness  of  the  Windhya 
hills. 

And  as  he  went  along,  that  very  miserable 
Brahman  said  angrily  to  himself,  with  tears  in 
his  eyes:  Ha!  what  was  the  Creator  about,  in 
creating  such  a  world  as  this,  where  evil-doers 
prosper,  and  virtue  comes  to  ruin,  and  fidelity 
and  service  and  devotion  gain  nothing  in 
reward,  but  villainous  ingratitude,  and  bitter 
disappointment?  Surely  it  was  a  blunder; 
and  why,  then,  do  the  rulers  of  the  world  allow 
it  to  continue?  And  all  at  once,  rage  rushed 
into  his  soul  against  the  very  constitution  of 
the  world,''  as  if  that,  rather  than  himself. 


^  Sthiti,  the  established  world-order,  is  one  of  the  three  terms 
of  the  universe,  as  opposed  to  sarga,  its  creation,  and  pralaya,  its 
destruction  and  end. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  15 

were  the  author  of  his  misery.  And  he  ex- 
claimed, in  an  ecstasy  of  grief:  Ha!  Did  not 
Wishwamitra,  when  he  found  this  world  not 
according  to  his  taste,  create  another  of  his 
own?  And  by  what  means  did  he  acquire  the 
power  that  enabled  him  to  perform  his  ex- 
traordinary feats  of  world-creating  and  other 
such  miracles,  but  by  penance  and  asceticism? 
Did  he  not  prove,  by  his  own  example,  that 
nothing  is  impossible  to  perfect  asceticism? 
And  cannot  others  do  what  he  did,  by  the 
very  selfsame  means,  provided  only  that  their 
resolution  is  thorough  and  complete?  So 
then,  now,  I  also  will  rival  and  surpass  him, 
and  by  means  of  the  intensity  of  my  extra- 
ordinary penance  bend  the  very  gods  to  my 
will,  and  compel  them  to  obey  me,  and  change 
the  established  constitution  of  the  world, 
whether  they  will  or  no.  Aye,  my  resolution 
is  fixed,  and  adamantine,  and  inalterable.  I 
will  begin  this  very  moment,  and  heap  up  for 
myself  a  very  mountain  of  merit,  till  its  tower- 
ing mass  shall  overbalance  and  obliterate  the 
united  forces  of  the  inhabitants  of  heaven. 


i6  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

So  then  he  resolved,  in  the  bitter  agony  of 
disappointment.  And  like  one  looking  down 
into  a  forest  pool  created  by  a  shower  of  rain, 
and  mistaking  its  shallowness  for  an  infinity 
of  depth,  deceived  by  the  imitation  of  the 
illimitable  abyss  of  heaven  in  the  mirror  of  its 
glass,  so  he  mistook  his  own  pique  at  the  world 
arising  from  the  wound  inflicted  by  the  con- 
duct of  his  wife,  and  proving,  by  its  very 
violence,  the  strength  of  his  attachment  to  the 
objects  of  sense  that  he  pretended  to  despise, 
for  real  renunciation  based  on  perfect  know- 
ledge, and  undertook  rashly,  in  imitation  of 
that  bull  among  ascetics,  Wishwamitra,  a 
task  beyond  the  limits  of  his  strength;  not 
having  understood,  that  those  only  are  equal 
to  the  terrible  strain  of  true  renunciation 
whose  soul  is  pure,  unstained  by  any  tincture 
of  egoism,  and  resembling  a  well  of  the  crystal 
liquor  of  perfect  mastery  of  self.  And  yet 
even  so,  he  commenced  his  undertaking 
confidently,  and  counting  beforehand  on  suc- 
cess, and  burning  with  the  fire  of  preliminary 
zeal,  ignorant  of  the  presence  of  that  element 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  17 

in  his  soul,  which  was  destined  in  the  future  to 
upset  his  calculations,  and  bring  about  his 
utter  destruction,  on  the  very  brink  of  ulti- 
mate success.  And  going  to  the  farthest 
recesses  of  the  forest,  he  discovered  in  its  heart 
a  remote  and  lonely  cemetery,'  on  the  outskirts 
of  a  long  deserted  and  forgotten  town.  And 
he  entered  it,  and  having  discovered  a  suitable 
spot,  he  remained  and  dwelt  there,  as  motion- 
less as  a  tree.  And  collecting  from  the  relics 
of  burning  funeral  pyres  a  quantity  of  bare 
and  empty  skulls,  divested  of  their  flesh  by 
fire,  and  time,  and  the  troops  of  night-walking, 
flesh-devouring  wild  beasts  and  Rakshasas 
and  Wet  alas, ""  by  which  that  gloomy  cemetery 
was  infested,  he  made  of  them  a  rosary  for 
himself,  like  mine,^  and  began  to  mutter 
spells.  And  so  he  continued,  night  and 
day,  year  after  year,  muttering  incessantly, 
living  all  the  while  like  a  serpent  on  nothing 

'  The  stnashdna  is  rather  a  burning-ground  than  a  cemetery. 
But  it  is  often  called  pilrigriha — "the  home  of  the  fathers,"  and 
thus  cemetery  may  stand,  as  an  equivalent.  _ 

*  t.  e.  goblins  and  vampires. 

sMaheshwara,  who  is  speaking,  wears  a  necklace  of  skulls. 


i8  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

but  air  and  his  own  undaunted  resolution,  till 
at  last  he  had  completed  a  century  of  years. 
And  then  at  last,  being  pleased  with  his 
perseverance,  such  as  it  was,  I  appeared  to  him 
one  day  in  the  guise  of  a  digambara,''  and 
granted  him  a  boon.  Thereupon  that  in- 
domitable Trishodadhi  replied:  O  Shankara, 
I  ask  for  absolutely  nothing,  but  permission  to 
continue  my  devotions.  If  therefore  I  must 
perforce  select  a  boon,  grant  me  as  much  time 
as  I  require,  so  as  to  continue,  muttering  on, 
till  I  abandon  my  assiduity  of  my  own  accord. 
So  I  left  him,  muttering  diligently  away,  just 
as  before,  though  I  foresaw  the  end,  and  knew 
that  he  carried  within  him,  unsuspected  by 
himself,  the  seed  of  the  fruit  of  his  own  un- 
doing, which  time  would  ripen,  dooming  him 
to  undergo  the  punishment  that  lies  in  wait 
for  all,  who  plunge,  without  due  considera- 
tion, into  enterprises  above  their  strength.^ 
And  so  the  boon  I  offered  him  was  wasted, 

't.  e.  a  naked  mendicant  ascetic. 

'Nemo  potest  supra  seipsum,  said  the  Schoolmen — a  profound 
observation  exactly  in  harmony  with  old  Hindoo  ideas  on  moral 
force. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  19 

and  the  chance  was  thrown  away.  For  had 
he  only  had  knowledge  of  himself,  it  might 
have  saved  him  after  all,  by  ensuring  him 
oblivion  of  the  past.  For  his  memory  was 
his  ruin,  as  the  story  will  show  thee,  O 
Daughter  of  the  Snow. 

And  he  in  the  meantime  muttered  on  un- 
flaggingly,  wholly  intent  on  nothing  else, 
till  at  length  the  moimd  of  his  accumu- 
lated merit  began  to  rival  in  dimension 
yonder  hill,  whose  top  the  evening  sun  is 
now  touching  with  the  colour  of  affection, 
as  if  loth  to  leave  it  to  be  swallowed  by 
the  dark. 


Ill 


And  then  at  last  one  day  it  happened,  that 
Matali  arrived  in  Indra's  palace,  having 
returned  to  heaven  from  a  visit  to  the  earth. 
And  as  soon  as  he  entered,  he  exclaimed:  O 
punisher  of  Paka, '  and  the  rest,  what  are  you 
all  about?  Are  you  asleep,  or  have  you 
actually  abandoned  all  care  whether  of  your 
own  pre-eminence  or  the  established  order  of 
the  world?  For  away  below  on  earth,  there 
is  an  old  Brahman,  in  a  deserted  cemetery  in 
the  forest  of  the  Windhya  hills,  who  by  his 
interminable  muttering  continued  through 
the  centuries  has  accumulated  so  gigantic  a 
heap  of  merit  ,^  that  it  threatens  destruction  to 

^i.  e.  Indra.     Mdtali  is  his  messenger,  the  Hindoo  Mercury. 

"This  singular  idea,  familiar  now  to  Europe,  in  the  form  of 
the  prayer-wheels  of  Tibet,  is  not  wholly  without  parallels  in  the 
West.  The  only  difference  is,  that  the  Hindoos  are  a  very  logical 
people,  and  carry  the  absurd  to  its  extreme. 

20 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  21 

the  three  worlds.  And  now,  unless  something 
is  done  very  speedily  to  stop  him,  and  reduce 
it,  this  merit  of  his,  beyond  a  doubt,  will  dis- 
turb the  equilibrium  of  the  universe,  and 
wreck  the  established  order  of  the  worlds, 
and  hurl  you  from  your  thrones. 

And  hearing  him,  Indra  said.  There  is  no 
difficulty  in  this.  I  will  go  myself,  and  bribe 
him  to  discontinue  his  proceedings.  And  he 
went  down  himself  accordingly  to  earth,  to 
examine  and  investigate  that  Brahman,  and 
see  what  could  be  done.  And  after  consid- 
ering him  awhile,  and  admiring  his  extra- 
ordinary obstinacy,  he  set  to  work  to  tempt 
him,  and  induce  him,  by  offering  bribes  of 
various  descriptions,  to  desist.  And  he  of- 
fered him  accordingly  mountains  of  gold,  and 
oceans  of  jewels,  and  everlasting  youth,  and 
many  kinds  of  magic  power,  and  finally  he 
racked  his  brains,  to  find  something  or  other 
that  would  move  that  obdurate  Trishodadhi, 
and  draw  him  from  his  vow.  But  in  vain. 
For  Trishodadhi  paid  no  more  attention  to  his 
offers  and  himself,  than  the  moon  does  to  the 


22  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

barking  of  a  dog;  continuing  to  mutter,  all 
the  time  he  spoke,  just  as  if  he  was  not  there. 
So  finding  all  his  efforts  vain,  after  a  while, 
that  baffled  lover  of  Ahalya^  returned  to 
heaven.  And  summoning  the  gods,  he  laid 
the  case  before  them,  and  requested  their  ad- 
vice. And  after  deliberation,  they  deter- 
mined to  seduce  him  by  sending  down  a 
heavenly  nymph,  saying  to  themselves :  Did 
not  Menaka  and  Tilottama,  and  others  of 
their  kind,  prove  too  strong  for  the  asceticism 
of  even  mighty  sages,  so  that  their  merit 
melted,  like  a  lump  of  snow,  in  the  flame  of 
their  desire,  and  their  self-control  vanished 
like  stubble  in  a  forest  conflagration?  Nay, 
did  not  even  Brahma  assume  his  name,^  be- 
coming four-faced,  in  order  to  gratify  his 
intolerable  thirst  to  behold  the  beauty  of 
Tilottamd  performing  a  pradakshina  around 
him,  though  he  would  not  turn  his  head? 
Therefore  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  in  this 


'  The  wife  of  the  sage  Gautama,  with  whom  Indra  had  an 
intrigue  that  covered  him  with  shame,  in  more  ways  than  one. 
'  Chaturmukha. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  23 

case  also,  the  irresistible  amber  of  feminine 
attraction  will  prove  its  power,  and  draw  this 
grass  in  the  form  of  a  Brahman  any  way  it 
will,  snapping  like  thread  the  resolution  which 
would  chain  him  to  his  muttering,  as  soon  as 
it  is  seen. 

And  accordingly  they  drew  up  before  them 
in  a  row  the  chorus  of  Indra's  heavenly  dan- 
cers. And  they  chose  out  of  them  all  that 
Apsaras  who  seemed  to  them  the  least  easily 
to  be  resisted,  by  reason  of  her  rounded  arms 
and  dainty  ankles,  and  sent  her  down  to  earth 
with  suitable  instructions,  to  seduce  that 
Brahman  from  his  muttering  as  quickly  as  she 
could.  But  she,  to  her  amazement,  found  on 
her  arrival,  that,  do  what  she  might,  she  could 
not  even  so  much  as  succeed  in  inducing  him 
to  look  at  her  sideways  even  for  a  moment. 
So,  after  a  while,  she  left  him,  and  flew  back 
to  heaven  in  a  pet.  And  they  sent  instead  of 
her  another,  who  presently  returned,  having 
found  herself  as  ineffectual  as  the  first.  And 
they  tried  again,  and  sent,  one  after  another, 
the  whole   of  Indra's   chorus,   pelting  as   it 


24  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

were  that  stony-hearted  old  ascetic  with  a  very- 
shower  of  celestial  flowers,  and  gaining  the 
very  opposite  of  the  end  at  which  they  aimed. 
For  inasmuch  as  he  never  ceased  muttering 
even  for  a  moment,  all  their  efforts  to  cor- 
rupt him  and  reduce  his  stock  of  merit 
only  added  to  its  heap,  making  its  moun- 
tainous proportions  more  formidable  than 
before. 

And  finally  Indra  exclaimed  in  despair: 
We  are  conquered  by  this  awatdr  of  obstinacy 
in  the  form  of  an  ascetic,  on  whose  rock  the 
waves  of  this  very  sea  of  beauty  beat  in  vain. 
And  now  there  is  no  refuge  for  us  but  in  the 
sole  of  the  foot  of  the  Burner^  of  the  Bodiless 
God.  For  he  alone  is  stronger  than  Love, 
whose  power  seems  to  fail  us  in  this  pinch, 
rendered  nugatory  by  the  intractable  com- 
position of  this  exasperating  mutterer.  And 
if  even  he  can  devise  no  remedy  for  this  dis- 
ease, it  is  incurable;  and  then  will  this  in- 
corruptible old  devotee  have  us  all  at  his 

'  i.  e.  Maheshwara  himself,  who  burned  Love  with  fire  from  his 
eye. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  25 

mercy/  and  bring  heaven  to  its  knees,  and 
turn,  if  he  pleases,  the  three  worlds  upside 
down. 

And  then,  led  by  Indra,  they  came  alto- 
gether in  a  body  to  me;  and  placing  the  dif- 
ficulty before  me,  they  waited  with  anxiety 
to  hear  what  I  should  say.  And  I  looked 
there  and  then  into  the  future,  and  saw  in  its 
dark  mirror,  like  a  picture,  the  ruin  of  that 
old  ambitious  Brahman,  and  the  means  by 
which  it  was  destined  to  be  accomplished. 
And  after  a  while,  I  said  slowly:  All  dis- 
eases are  not  able  to  be  remedied  by  the  same 
medicine,  and  notwithstanding  the  omnipo- 
tence of  feminine  attraction,  this  is  a  case 
wherein  heavenly  nymphs  are  impotent,  and 
utterly  without  avail.  For  all  these  heavenly 
nymphs  do  nothing  but  dance  and  sing  and 

'  Max  Muller,  to  whom  students  of  the  Rig-Weda  owe  so 
much,  was  nevertheless  essentially  mistaken  in  saying  that  the 
word  weda  means  knowledge.  It  does  not  mean  knowledge,  in 
our  sense  of  the  word,  scientific,  Baconian,  Aristotelian;  an 
idea  quite  alien  to  that  of  the  old  hotris.  By  weda  they  meant 
magical  knowledge,  spells;  which  being  sung  or  muttered  had 
power  to  compel  the  deities:  thus  the  Brahman  who  possessed 
the  "knowledge"  (in  the  phrase  of  the  Brahmanas,  yah  ewam 
weda)  was  the  master  of  the  world. 


26  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

attitudinise  and  ogle,  imagining  that  as  in  the 
case  of  Menaka,  Tilottama,  Rambha,  and  the 
rest,  they  have  only  to  show  themselves  to 
gain  at  once  their  end,  trusting  only  to  the 
body  and  its  beauty,  and  very  shallow  co- 
quetry and  artifices  to  sharpen  the  edge  of  its 
effect,  such  as  wind  that  stirs  their  clothing,  or 
water  that  causes  it  to  cling  to  the  outline  of 
their  limbs  and  reveal,  as  if  by  accident,  the 
thing  that  it  pretends  and  is  intended  to 
conceal,  and  other  such  devices.  But  this 
Trishodadhi  is  a  fish  that,  as  I  perceive, 
will  not  easily  be  caught  by  the  bait  of  mere 
meretricious  beauty,  and  in  his  case,  the  hook 
must  be  hidden  in  a  lure  of  quite  another  kind. 
But  there  is  a  Daitya,  named  Aparapaksha, ' 
living  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  sea,  who  has  a 
hundred  daughters.  And  were  beauty  the 
necessary  weapon  in  this  instance,  any  one  of 
them  would  serve  the  turn,  since  all  of  them 
have  bodies  formed  as  it  were  of  ocean-foam, 
with  lips  of  coral,  and  eyes  like  pools,  and 
hair  longer  than  themselves,  and  voices  like 

'  i.  e.  the  dark  half  of  the  lunar  month. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  27 

the  echo  of  the  waves;  and  only  lately  I 
heard  them  singing  all  together  as  I  passed, 
on  an  island  shore,  and  was  myself  all  but 
bewitched,  so  that  unawares  I  paused,  hang- 
ing in  the  air  to  listen,  waylaid  as  it  were  by 
the  magic  and  the  spell  of  that  melancholy 
sound,  forgetting  my  journey  for  the  sake  of 
their  refrain.  But  now,  since  something  more 
is  necessary,  you  must  abandon  all  the  others, 
and  betake  you  to  the  youngest  of  them  all, 
who  is  rightly  named  Kalanidhi,  though  she  is 
the  ugliest  and  cleverest  woman  in  the  three 
worlds,  for  she  is  a  very  ocean  of  craft  and 
trickery  and  guile,*  and  very  knavish  in 
disposition,  as  full  of  deception  and  caprice 
as  the  element  in  which  she  Hves.  And  if  you 
can  get  her  to  assist  you,  I  do  not  doubt  you 
will  succeed.  And  perhaps,  if  you  tell  her 
that  this  is  a  matter  in  which  all  the  heavenly 
nymphs  have  failed,  she  will  help  you  out  of 
spite;  for  she  is  very  jealous  of  them  all,  and 
this  is  a  glorious  opportunity  for  her  to  show 


'  There  is  a  pun  in  her  name,  which  as  applied  to  the  moon, 
means  a  store  of  digits,  but  also  signifies  an  ouan  of  wiles. 


28  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

herself  able  to  accomplish  a  thing  which  has 
baffled  the  ingenuity  and  beauty  of  every- 
body else.  But  certainly,  if  she  either  can- 
not or  will  not  overcome  this  obstacle,  I  think 
that  even  the  elephant-headed  Lord  of  Ob- 
stacles himself  would  fail.  For  though  beauty 
is  a  power  stronger  than  any  other,  it  may 
nevertheless  sometimes  be  successfully  re- 
sisted. But  feminine  ingenuity  is  a  far  more 
formidable  antagonist,  which  no  man  has 
ever  yet  successfully  encountered  since  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  since  it  is  half  pro- 
tected by  his  own  inntimerable  scruples  in 
its  favour,  being  utterly  destitute  of  any  sort 
of  scruple  of  its  own.  And  so,  should  Ka- 
lanidhi  assist  you,  and  fail  after  all,  there  is 
nothing  to  be  done;  and  xmder  the  weight  of 
this  Brahman's  mountain  of  accumulated 
merit,  you  must  sink  to  the  very  bottom  of  the 
ocean  of  defeat,  like  an  earth  bereft  of  the 
tortoise  to  save  it  on  its  back. 


IV 


So  then,  led  by  the  lover  of  Ahalya,  the 
gods  went  off  in  a  body  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  to  look  for  Kalanidhi,  in  such  a  hurry 
that  they  even  forgot  to  worship  me.  And 
they  found  her  father's  residence,  but  not 
himself,  for  he  happened  to  be  away  from 
home.  And  roaming  here  and  there  among 
his  hundred  daughters,  all  at  once  they  came 
upon  Kalanidhi,  lying  dreaming,  curled  in  a 
bed  formed  by  her  own  hair,  in  a  giant  oyster 
shell.  And  very  suitable  indeed  seemed  that 
shell  to  be  her  cradle,  for  her  bosom  resembled 
an  enormous  double  pearl,  not  dead  but 
living,  keeping  time  slowly  to  the  echo  of  the 
sea.  And  her  body,  that  resembled  a  foam- 
ing  wave,    was   hung   all   over   with   gems, 

picked  up  at  random  from  the  ocean  floor,  and 

29 


30  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

her  lips  resembled  sprigs  that  had  fallen  from 
the  coral  tree  whose  branches  spread  above 
her  head  in  and  out  of  the  green  water  that 
moved  her  weedy  tresses  quietly  to  and  fro. 
And  as  she  opened  her  eyes  and  looked  to- 
wards them,  Indra  said  within  himself:  Ma- 
heshwara  was  right,  and  she  is  hideous,  for  all 
her  beauty;  for  her  eyes  are  like  sea  caves, 
out  of  which  other  eyes  like  those  of  an 
ajagara  seem  to  freeze  you  with  their  chill, 
and  the  smile  on  her  thin  lips  resembles  the 
sinister  and  silent  laughter  of  a  skull. 

So  as  they  came  towards  her,  Kalanidhi 
gazed  at  them  sleepily  in  wonder,  and  mur- 
mured softly  to  herself:  What  in  the  world 
can  the  gods  want,  so  badly,  as  to  bring  them 
here,  all  together  in  a  lump?  For  these  must 
be  the  gods,  since  their  eyelids  do  not  wink. 
Something  must  surely  have  gone  amiss  in 
heaven,  and  beyond  a  doubt,  sore  indeed 
must  be  the  need  that  drives  them,  for  in- 
stead of  sending  Ma  tali,  they  have  actually 
come  themselves.  And  now  it  is  very  fortun- 
ate that  my  father  is  away.     For  he  is  far  too 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  31 

simple'  to  drive  a  bargain  with  the  gods,  or 
anybody  else,  and  would  make  no  use  of  his 
opportunity. 

And  then  she  arose  politely,  and  listened  in 
silence,  while  Indra  told  her  the  whole  story. 
And  when  he  ended,  she  looked  at  him  for 
a  while  ironically,  and  then  she  said:  For 
centuries  have  we  lived  here,  my  father  and 
my  sisters  and  myself,  and  yet  not  even  one 
of  the  gods  ever  visited  us  before.  What 
honour,  for  a  daughter  of  the  Daityas!  But 
what  could  be  the  services  of  such  a  thing  as 
me,  where  even  heavenly  maidens  fail?  More- 
over, I  do  not  like  cemeteries,  seeing  that 
every  cemetery  is  the  home  of  mouldering 
and  evil-smelling  bones  and  skulls,  and  flesh- 
eating  Rakshasas  and  Wetalas  and  ghosts. 
But  inasmuch  as  you  have  come  here,  not  as 
friends  or  guests,  but  as  merchants  seeking 
to  engage  me  in  an  enterprise  for  your  own 
advantage,  this  is  after  all  a  matter  on  a  mere 
commercial  footing.     And  what  then  is  to  be 

'  It  is  singular  that  Rdkshasas  in  Hindoo  story,  like  Ogres  in 
the  West,  are  always  represented  as  simpletons  and  ninnies. 


32  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

the  price  of  my  assistance,  and  if  I  am  suc- 
cessful, what  is  to  be  my  appropriate  re- 
ward? 

Then  said  Maghawan:'  I  will  give  thee  a 
crore  of  elephants,  black  as  ink,  with  golden 
tusks;  or  if  thou  wilt,  raiment  woven  out  of  the 
beams  of  the  rising  or  the  setting  sun,  or 
crystal  vats  of  camphor  strained  from  the 
midnight  moon,  or  endless  strings  of  jewels, 
or  anything  thou  wilt.  Then  said  Kalanidhi: 
What  is  the  use  of  elephants,  even  black  as 
ink  with  golden  tusks,  at  the  very  bottom  of 
the  sea?  And  as  for  jewels,  the  sea  floor  is 
their  very  home,  and  I  find  them  strewn  at 
my  very  feet.  And  as  for  clothing,  what  do  I 
want  but  my  own  hair?  Then  said  Indra: 
Choose,  then,  for  thyself,  what  I  shall  give 
thee.  And  Kalanidhi  smiled.  And  she  said: 
What  if  I  were  to  require  of  thee  a  cushion, 
stuffed  with  the  down  that  grows  on  the  breast 
of  Brahma's  swan,  or  a  fan,  to  cool  me,  made 
of  the  feathers  of  Saraswati's  peacock's  tail? 
And  Indra  said :    Both  shall  be  thine,  and  the 

'  i.  e.  Indra. 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  33 

bargain  is  complete.  Then  said  Kalanidhi: 
Nay,  there  is  no  hurry.  For  what  if  I  asked 
for  a  crore  of  crystal  jars,  filled  to  the  very 
brim  with  amrita,  which,  never  having  tasted, 
I  am  curious  to  taste?  And  Indra  said: 
That  also  shall  be  thine,  and  so  the  bargain  is 
complete.  Then  said  Kalanidhi:  Nay,  for 
there  might  still  be  something  lacking.  What 
if  I  should  say,  that  I  long  for  a  single  blossom 
of  Wishnu's  pdrijdta  tree?  For  when  I  am  in 
the  cemetery,  how  should  I  endure  to  stay, 
even  for  a  single  moment,  without  its  odour 
as  an  antidote  to  the  reek  of  burning  bodies 
and  the  stench  of  dying  p3Tes?  And  Indra 
said:  For  that  also  I  will  answer,  and  now 
the  bargain  is  complete.  Then  said  Kald- 
nidhi:  Nay,  be  not  hasty,  in  a  matter  of 
such  importance.  And  now  that  I  come  to 
think  of  it,  this  Brahman  must  be  very  old 
and  ugly,  and  exceedingly  repulsive  by  reason 
of  his  long  austerity.  And  what  if  I  should 
ask  thee  for  a  lamp,  that  I  might  examine  him 
from  a  distance,  made  of  a  single  splinter 
chipped  from  Wishnu's  kaustubha,  and  filled 


34  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

not  with  oil,  but  the  ooze  of  Shiwa's  moon, 
squeezed  from  the  moonstones  hanging  on  the 
trellises  in  Alaka,  so  that  setting  it  in  imita- 
tion of  Maheshwara,  like  a  diadem  in  my  hair, 
I  might  be  suitably  equipped  for  reconnoitring 
your  Brahman,  in  that  gloomy  home  of 
ghosts?  And  Indra  said:  I  will  guarantee 
it  thine,  and  the  bargain  is  complete. 

And  then,  Kalanidhi  looked  craftily  at  the 
eager  god,  out  of  the  very  comer  of  her  eye. 
And  all  at  once  she  began  to  laugh,  and  she 
exclaimed:  Ha!  lover  of  Ahalya,  thy  need 
must  surely  be  extreme,  seeing  that  thou  art  as 
it  seems  ready  to  strip  the  very  deities  of  their 
necessary  attributes,  to  lure  me  to  thy  task. 
But  now,  learn  that  I  did  but  play  with  thee 
and  thy  anxiety,  to  measure  the  degree  of  thy 
extremity;  nor  do  I  stand  in  need  of  any  of 
those  things  that  I  have  mentioned,  nor  of 
anything  at  all.  For  my  assistance  will  be 
determined,  not  by  bribes,  but  my  own  good 
pleasure  and  caprice.  And  it  may  be  I  will 
go  and  try  my  skill  against  this  old  malignant 
mutterer,  merely  because  I  choose,  and  for  no 


A  Mountain  of  Merit  35 

reward  at  all,  and  to  show  that  I  can  be  of  use, 
when  all  the  nymphs  of  heaven  are  more 
worthless  than  a  straw.  But  in  the  mean- 
time something  more  is  necessary,  without 
which  I  cannot  even  tell  whether  there  is  any- 
thing whatever  to  be  done  at  all,  even  by 
myself.  Tell  me,  then,  the  whole  story  of  this 
Brahman,  beginning  from  his  very  birth, 
omitting  absolutely  nothing;  so  that  I  may 
first  of  all  discover,  what  is  the  strength  or 
weakness  of  this  enemy,  whom  thou  wouldst 
have  me  engage  and  overthrow. 

And  Indra  told  her  as  she  asked,  beginning 
from  the  beginning,  everything  there  was  to 
know.  And  when  he  ended,  Kalanidhi  re- 
mained a  while,  buried  in  meditation.  And 
suddenly  she  laughed,  and  said:  O  Mag- 
hawan,  thy  nymphs  are  surely  very  stupid, 
resembling  beautiful  bodies  that  are  destitute 
of  souls.  Is  it  really  possible  that  with  such 
weapons  in  their  hands,  they  could  not  so 
much  as  make  the  shadow  of  an  impression  on 
this  Brahman .'^  Come  now,  we  will  go  to- 
gether, for  I  shall  need  thee  to  assist  me,  and 


36  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

overthrow  this  mutterer,  together  with  the 
mountain  of  his  merit,  by  the  favour  of  the 
Elephant-headed  deity;  for  I  think,  that  there 
will  be  very  little  difficulty  in  diverting  his 
attention  from  his  penance,  after  all :  so  little, 
that  as  I  will  show  thee  by  experiment,  it  is 
not  I  that  will  upset  him,  but,  aided  by  me, 
he  will  simply  overturn  himself.  And  when 
I  have  succeeded,  I  will  ask  thee  for  absolutely 
nothing  in  return;  but  thou  shalt  cause  me  to 
be  worshipped  by  all  the  nymphs  in  heaven 
in  a  body,  performing  a  pradakshina  around 
me  in  due  form. 

And  Indra  said  within  himself:  Well  said 
the  Moony-crested,  that  jealousy  alone  would 
induce  her  to  comply.  And  he  exclaimed 
aloud,  in  an  ecstasy  of  delight;  O  daughter  of 
Aparapaksha,  do  but  succeed  in  corrupting 
this  ascetic,  and  I  vow  to  thee,  I  will  myself 
perform  a  pradakshina  about  thee,  at  the 
head  of  all  my  nymphs! 


A  Fetter  of  the   Soul 


37 


380^88 


up  my  longing  eyes  I  tossed 

Heaven  to  seek  me  in  the  skies: 
Then  I  found  them,  and  was  lost 
Gazing  down,  in  other  eyes. 
But  was  it  Heaven  they  found,  or  was  it  Hell? 
Lord  of  the  Moony  Tire,  I  cannot  tell. 

RUDRA 


38 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul 


Now  in  the  meanwhile,  Trishodadhi  re- 
mained in  that  cemetery,  in  a  posture  of 
devotion.  And  as  the  interminable  pattering 
of  rain,  drop  after  drop,  fills  up  a  lake,  so  did 
his  everlasting  muttering  keep  adding  grain  by- 
grain  to  the  mountain  of  his  merit,  till  gazing 
at  it,  even  Meru  began  to  shudder  for  his  own 
pre-eminence.  And  on  he  laboured  diligently, 
pausing  every  now  and  then  only  when  ne- 
cessity compelled  him  to  repair  his  rosary '  of 
skulls,  some  of  which  from  time  to  time  wore 
out  and  fell  to  pieces,  colliding  with  one  an- 
other as  he  told  them  each  in  turn  in  the  un- 
interrupted exercise  of  his  devotions,  till  at 

'The  japamdla,  "string  of  muttering,"  is  exactly  the  rosary 
of  the  West. 

39 


40  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

length  he  sat  surrounded  by  a  very  hill  of 
bones,  that  resembled  his  own  accumulated 
merit  in  another  form.  And  sometimes,  as  he 
looked  at  them,  he  murmured  to  himself: 
Now,  as  it  seems,  the  termination  of  my  pen- 
ance is  approaching,  and  the  beginning  is 
drawing  to  an  end,  and  very  soon,  I  shall 
have  amassed  a  sufficient  stock  of  merit  to  al- 
low me  to  commence  operations  against  the 
citadel  of  heaven,  whose  inhabitants  are  now 
at  length  beginning,  not  without  a  cause,  to 
take  fright  at  my  proceedings,  if  I  may  form 
an  opinion  by  their  own.  For  not  only  did 
Indra  come  hither  in  person,  and  endeavour 
unsuccessfully  to  turn  me  from  my  purpose  by 
offering  me  every  kind  of  bribe,  but  latterly  I 
have  noticed  heavenly  maidens,  coming,  one 
by  one,  like  a  stream  of  stars  falling  from 
the  sky,  into  this  dismal  earthly  burning- 
ground,  seeking  to  seduce  me  by  their  charms. 
But  let  them  come,  even  all  together;  they 
shall  find  my  resolution  proof,  and  add  against 
their  will  to  the  virtue  they  seek  to  under- 
mine.   Aye,  my  sublime  determination  is  a 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  41 

rock,    against    which    the    sea    of    feminine 
cajolery  shall  hurl  itself  in  vain. 

So  as  he  spoke,  he  struck  violently  one  of 
his  skulls  against  another,  and  it  broke,  and 
escaping  from  the  string,  rolled  away  out  of 
his  hand.  And  he  raised  his  head,  and  cast  a 
glance  around  him,  with  the  object  of  dis- 
covering another  to  replace  it.  And  as  he 
did  so,  he  started,  and  exclaimed  within 
himself:  Ha!  just  as  I  anticipated,  there  is  as 
it  seems  yet  another  of  these  snares  in  the  form 
of  women,  coming  to  entice  me  by  the  bait 
of  her  lascivious  beauty,  and  hoping,  more  suc- 
cessful than  her  sisters,  to  roll  my  resolution, 
like  a  wheel,  out  of  its  deep  and  self-deter- 
mined rut.  But  now,  I  will  not  even  look  at 
her  at  all.  And  very  soon,  growing  like  all 
her  predecessors  weary  of  the  vain  endeavour 
to  attract  my  notice  and  distract  my  con- 
centration, she  will  give  it  up  of  her  own 
accord,  and  go  back  to  her  employers  in  dis- 
gust. And  he  stooped  accordingly  close  over 
his  beads,  and  muttered  on,  with  his  head  bent 
towards  the  ground,  and  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 


42  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

broken    skull    within    his   hand,    waiting    to 
repair  the  injury  till  she  should  go  away. 

But  in  the  meanwhile  Kalanidhi,  for  she  it 
was,  having  arrived  at  the  cemetery,  and 
exploring  it,  discovered  Trishodadhi  at  his 
devotions,  came,  as  he  had  perceived,  close 
up  to  him,  and  standing  just  beside  him, 
began  to  examine  him  attentively,  like  a  gen- 
eral considering  a  fortress,  in  order  to  deter- 
mine the  proper  method  of  attack.  And  after 
a  while,  she  said  softly  to  herself:  Ha!  very 
miserable  indeed  is  this  old  skeleton  of  a 
Brahman,  who,  as  he  sits  muttering,  looks 
exactly  like  a  number  of  the  bones  by  which 
he  is  surrounded,  that  have  somehow  or  other 
joined  themselves  together,  and  become  ten- 
anted by  a  passing  disembodied  soul.  And 
little  do  I  relish,  as  I  look  at  him,  the  business 
I  have  in  hand.  But  if  I  now  abandon  it,  I 
shall  become  a  laughing-stock,  and  they  will 
think  that  I  found  myself  unable  to  perform 
what  I  had  promised,  failing,  like  those 
miserable  boobies,  the  heavenly  nymphs,  to 
keep  my  word.     Moreover,  the  great  in  soul 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  43 

never  dream  of  abandoning  an  enterprise, 
once  they  have  begun  it,  till  they  have 
crowned  it  with  success.  And  now,  therefore, 
very  soon  it  will  be  seen,  which  of  us  two,  this 
loathsome  old  ascetic,  or  myself,  will  have 
to  confess  himself  defeated,  and  give  up  his 
endeavour  unachieved,  like  a  bridge  begun  to 
span  a  great  river  that  never  reaches  the 
farther  shore.  And  she  stopped  to  examine 
him,  and  said  again:  Doubtless,  for  all  his 
busy  muttering,  he  has  long  ago  become  aware 
of  my  presence,  and  as  his  attitude  declares,  is 
nerving  himself  for  opposition  and  desperate 
resistance,  expecting  me  to  assault  him  point- 
blank,  like  all  those  very  silly  nymphs,  by 
attitudinising,  and  giving  him  glimpses  of  my 
beauty,  and  practising  other  such  tricks  of 
coquetry  before  him.  And  beyond  a  doubt, 
he  is  flattering  himself  beforehand  on  his 
power  of  self-control,  and  already  triumphing 
at  the  prospect  of  my  ignominious  defeat. 
But  he  will  find  himself  very  much  mis- 
taken, and  unless  I  deceive  myself,  he  will  fall 
straight  into  the  trap  that.  I  have  set  for  him, 


44  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

never  so  much  as  suspecting  it  to  be  a  trap  at 
all,  just  because  I  shall  set  it  where  he  is  not 
looking  for  a  snare.  And  to  begin  with,  we 
shall  see,  whether  even  his  curiosity  will  be 
proof.  For  I  will  take  care  to  irritate  and 
excite  it,  by  doing  all  behind  his  back,  so 
that  he  will  not  even  be  able  to  see  anything 
at  all,  except  by  expressly  turning  round  his 
head,  which  I  imagine  he  will  do,  before  very- 
long.  And  he  shall  be  attacked,  not  as  he 
anticipates,  but  by  that  very  avenue  along 
which  he  least  looks  for  danger,  and  one 
which,  for  all  that,  is  the  weakest  and  least 
guarded,  and  the  best  and  the  straightest  way 
by  which  to  reach  and  penetrate  his  soul — 
his  ears.  For  sight  can  be  assaulted  only  by 
what  is  present;  but  the  ears  are  a  passage 
by  which  I  shall  steal  like  a  snake  into  the 
past,  and  pierce  his  very  heart. 


II 


So,  then,  as  that  suspicious  yet  unsuspicious 
old  Brahman  sat  waiting,  with  his  face  turned 
towards  the  east,  expecting  every  moment  the 
assault  of  some  temptation  in  the  form  of  a 
sudden  vision  of  intoxicating  female  beauty, 
time  wore  away,  little  by  little,  and  hour  suc- 
ceeded hour,  and  he  saw  absolutely  nothing. 
And  the  day  slowly  died,  and  the  sun  travelled 
onwards  over  his  head,  till  his  shadow  crept 
silently  from  behind  him  and  began  to  stretch 
out  gradually  longer  and  longer  before  his 
eyes.  And  as  the  sun  set,  the  moon  rose,  and 
that  cemetery  became  as  it  were  a  battle- 
ground in  which  the  silver  and  the  golden 
light  engaged,  and  struggled  silently  for  mas- 
tery; while  night,  their  common  enemy,  took 
as  it  were  advantage  of  their  quarrel  to  bring 

45 


46  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

up  a  host  of  shadows  that  threatened  to  de- 
stroy them  both.  And  in  the  stillness  of  that 
epiphany  of  dusk,  he  listened,  and  heard  abso- 
lutely nothing,  but  the  beating  of  his  own  heart. 
And  after  a  while,  he  said  to  himself:  All  is 
quiet  in  the  forest:  and  now,  as  I  thought,  this 
last  ineffectual  temptress  has  taken  herself  off, 
having  discovered  the  futility  of  her  efforts  to 
inveigle  me,  like  all  the  rest  before. 

And  at  that  very  moment,  he  heard  at  a 
distance  among  the  forest  trees  the  noise  of 
breaking  branches,  and  the  crashing  of  twigs 
and  leaves.  And  he  listened  again,  and  said: 
Some  large  animal  is  forcing,  as  it  seems,  a 
way  through  the  denseness  of  the  wood,  and 
coming  gradually  nearer.  And  he  waited, 
and  after  a  while,  all  at  once  there  entered 
the  cemetery  from  out  of  the  wall  of  trees  a 
tall  royal  elephant,  with  great  yellow  tusks 
that  almost  reached  the  ground.  And  he 
went  slowly  and  wearily,  for  he  seemed  very 
old,  and  his  skin  hung  in  folds  about  him,  and 
his  body  was  all  muddy,  and  crusted  with 
the  slime  collected  from  the  forest  pools  in 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  47 

which  he  wallowed,  dried  on  him  by  the  sun. 
And  he  came  towards  Trishodadhi,  and  passed 
him,  paying  absolutely  no  regard  to  him  at  all, 
and  went  wandering  about  here  and  there  in 
the  moonlight,  as  if  he  were  looking  in  the 
cemetery  for  something  that  he  could  not 
find.  And  all  at  once,  he  stopped,  close  be- 
side a  pippala'  tree,  and  spoke  with  a  human 
voice,  and  said  aloud  in  deep  tones:  O  pip- 
pala,  art  thou  at  last  the  pippala  I  am  looking 
for,  or  only  a  common  tree? 

And  as  Trishodadhi  heard  him,  stupor  came 
upon  him,  and  he  said  to  himself  in  amaze- 
ment: Ha!  what  is  this  wonder,  that  an 
elephant  should  speak  with  an  intelligible 
voice,  and  that  I  should  understand  him? 
And  then,  all  at  once,  he  exclaimed,  in  an 
ecstasy  of  delight :  Ha!  I  understand.  lean 
understand  the  language  of  the  beasts.  Now, 
beyond  a  doubt,  this  is  a  fruit  of  the  tree 
of  my  asceticism,  whose  approaching  term  is 
the  cause  of  my  comprehension  of  his  words. 

'The  sacred  fig,  Ficus  religiosa.  The  word  should  be  pro- 
nounced almost  exactly  like  people — dissyllabically. 


48  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

And  his  heart  swelled  with  vanity  and  triumph, 
at  the  thought  of  his  own  forthcoming  per- 
fections. And  as  he  listened  eagerly  for 
more,  hardly  crediting  his  own  ears,  which 
stood  as  it  were  on  tiptoe  with  the  intensity 
of  their  curiosity,  all  at  once  there  came  out 
of  that  pippala  tree  a  voice.  And  it  said, 
softly,  like  a  sigh:  O  king  of  elephants,  and 
art  thou  then  the  elephant  at  last,  appointed 
me  to  meet? 

And  instantly,  the  elephant  trumpeted 
with  joy.  And  he  exclaimed:  O  long-ex- 
pected pippala,  I  could  dance  like  a  very  pea- 
cock at  the  sight  of  thee!  Can  it  be,  and 
have  I  found  thee?  Then  listen,  without 
wasting  any  time,  while  I  tell  thee  my 
story,  and  end  it,  and  so  at  last  free  myself 
from  the  curse,  and  this  hateful  body  of  an 
elephant,  in  which  I  have  been  imprisoned 
for  a  yuga. 

Then  said  the  pippala:  O  elephant,  thy 
voice  is  very  loud.  Dost  thou  not  see  that 
old  ascetic,  sitting  plunged  in  meditation, 
surrounded  by  a  heap  of  bones,  whose  soul 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  49 

is  doubtless  absent  far  away,  on  some  celestial 
errand?  Know,  that  I  love  him,  for  year  by 
year  I  have  watched  him  sitting  by  me  as  I 
grew,  almost  as  motionless  as  I  myself:  and 
I  will  not  have  his  soul  disturbed.  Moreover, 
if  thy  tones  disturb  him,  he  will  probably 
awake  in  wrath,  and  lay  on  thee  another 
curse.  Come  round  me,  therefore,  to  my 
other  side,  and  let  my  trunk  conceal  thee,  and 
screen  thy  harsh  voice ;  and  do  thou  speak  very 
low.  And  the  elephant  obeyed,  doing  as  the 
pippala  said.  But  Trishodadhi,  when  he 
heard  it,  almost  abandoned  the  body  in 
vexation.  And  he  said  within  himself:  Out 
upon  this  pippala,  and  her  affection  for 
myself!  Now,  very  probably,  I  shall  not 
hear.  And  he  strained  his  ears  to  catch, 
if  possible,  the  matter  of  their  conversa- 
tion, utterly  forgetting  to  mutter,  for  the 
time. 

Then  said  the  elephant:    O  holy  tree,  the 

sight  of  thee  is  like  water  to  one  dying  in  the 

sand.     For  long  ago,  when  I  fell  into  this  form, 

by  reason  of  a  curse,  pronounced  upon  me  for 

4 


50  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

a  sin,  this  meeting  with  thyself  was  fixed  as 
the  termination  of  the  curse.  And  I  have 
wandered  up  and  down,  as  I  think  for  a  very 
kalpa,  asking  every  pippala  that  I  saw  the  very 
question  that  never  received  an  answer  till 
this  moment;  so  that,  hearing  it,  I  almost 
leaped  out  of  the  body  in  my  joy.  Now 
listen,  and  so  at  last,  emerging  from  this 
dungeon  of  an  elephant,  I  shall  again  become  a 
man,  as  soon  as  I  have  told  thee  of  my  crime ; 
since  this  is  the  condition  of  the  fulfilment  and 
aboHtion  of  the  curse.  ^ 

Then  the  pippala  sighed  again:  Dear  ele- 
phant, speak  lower,  lest  the  end  of  one  curse  be 
only  the  beginning  of  another,  in  perhaps  a 
lower  form  than  thine.  And  Trishodadhi,  as 
he  listened,  shook  with  anger  and  irritation. 
And  the  elephant  said:  O  pippala,  I  will  do 
my  best.  But  this  voice  of  mine  is  my 
natural  tone,  appointed  for  my  species.  And 
after  all,  I  do  not  think  it  will  disturb  the 

*  This,  though  strange  to  Western  modem  ears,  would  be  quite 
familiar  to  an  old  Hindoo.  All  these  "curses"  had  their  "termi- 
nation" definitely  assigned  to  them  {dwadhi)  exactly  as  in  the 
text,  deliverance  being  made  conditional  on  the  telling  of  the  tale. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  51 

sage.  For  though  his  body  is  so  near  us,  it 
never  moves,  and  beyond  a  doubt  his  soul 
is  far  away,  attending  to  its  own  affairs.  And 
how,  then,  should  the  empty  body  overhear 
us,  in  the  absence  of  its  soul? 


Ill 


And  the  pippala  said:  Speak  on.  Then 
said  the  elephant:  O  pippala,  know,  that 
long  ago,  in  my  former  birth,  I  was  a  king, 
named  Ruru.  And  I  had  for  my  minister,  a 
Brahman,  named  Trishodadhi.  And  he  had 
an  incomparable  wife,  by  name  Watsatarl,  a 
very  paragon  of  beauty  and  devotion  to  her 
husband.  ^  And  she  it  was,  whose  virtue  was 
the  cause  of  my  falling  into  this  body  of  an 
elephant,  by  reason  of  a  curse. 

So  as  he  spoke,  the  heart  of  Trishodadhi,  as 
he  listened,  almost  jumped  from  his  body  with 
amazement.  And  he  said  to  himself:  Ha! 
what !    Am  I  dreaming,  or  can  it  actually  be, 


*  The  name,  par  excellence,  of  a  model  Hindoo  wife  is  patide- 
watd,  patiwratd:  i.  e.  she  to  whom  her  husband  is  a  god.  This 
epithet  is  the  Victoria  Cross,  the  blue  ribbon  of  the  Indian  matron% 

52 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  53 

that  this  is  my  old  master,  King  Ruru,  in  the 
semblance  of  an  elephant?  And  suddenly, 
that  old  life  which  he  had  so  long  forgotten  and 
abandoned,  rose  up  and  stood  before  him, 
like  a  picture  in  a  dream.  And  like  a  flash  of 
lightning,  he  flew  back  into  the  past.  And  all 
at  once,  a  pang  shot  into  his  heart,  keen  as 
long  ago,  at  that  moment  of  intolerable  agony, 
when  he  looked  and  saw  his  wife,  for  the  very 
last  time,  in  the  arms  of  the  king.  And  sud- 
denly, a  thirst  like  fire  rose  up  out  of  his  soul, 
and  took  him  by  the  throat.  And  he  gasped, 
not  knowing  what  he  did,  and  at  that  moment, 
wonder  changed  into  a  very  fever  of  fierce 
curiosity,  and  he  murmured  to  himself:  Ha! 
what!  Was  she  then,  after  all,  not  guilty, 
but  as  he  says  virtuous?  Ha!  then,  now  I 
shall  discover  the  whole  truth,  and  learn,  what 
I  never  knew,  the  story  of  her  fall,  if  indeed  she 
fell,  and  what  occurred  after  I  went  away, 
never  so  much  as  bidding  her  farewell. 

And  lo!  strange!  as  he  thought  of  her  again, 
there  ran  as  it  were  a  sword  into  his  soul. 
And   like   flame,    that   suddenly   bursts   out 


54  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

anew  in  the  ashes  of  a  fire  extinct,  so  all  at  once 
grief,  and  fierce  regret,  and  a  passionate  yearn- 
ing for  the  wife  that  played  him  false,  surged 
and  struggled  in  the  dark  oblivion  of  his 
ocean  of  recollection,  so  that  he  swayed  and 
tottered  as  he  sat.  And  utterly  forgetting 
all,  he  let  his  rosary  suddenly  drop  out  of  his 
hand,  and  turned  abruptly  round,  to  see  as 
well  as  hear.  And  when  he  looked,  he  saw 
the  elephant,  standing  still  with  drooping 
ears,  leaning  against  the  pippala's  trunk.  And 
then  again,  no  sooner  had  he  turned,  than  he 
exclaimed  within  himself:  Ha!  now  again, 
I  have  come  within  a  little  of  spoiling  all,  by 
betraying  to  them  that  I  am  a  party  to  their 
interview,  and  moreover,  not  a  bystander  in- 
different, but  one  very  much  concerned  in- 
deed. And  instantly  he  turned  back,  re- 
suming his  old  attitude,  and  remained,  still 
as  a  tree,  almost  dying  with  apprehension, 
lest  he  should  lose  even  a  single  word  of 
their  discourse. 

So  as  he  sat  Hstening,  all  at  once  the  pip- 
pala  said:     O  king  of  elephants,  why,  after 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  55 

commencing  thy  narration,  hast  thou  sud- 
denly broken  off,  no  sooner  than  begun? 
Then  the  elephant  sighed  deeply.  And  he 
said:  Holy  tree,  I  stopped,  as  it  were  against 
my  will,  at  the  thought  of  her  innocence,  and 
my  own  evil  conduct,  and  the  terrible  retribu- 
tion, that  overtook  me  in  the  shape  of  this 
elephant's  skin,  which  is  as  it  were  nothing 
but  the  consequence  of  my  own  works  in  a 
brutal  form.  Truly  have  the  sages  said: 
What  is  the  cause  of  the  misery  of  soul,  if  not 
the  envelope  of  body?  And  whence  arises 
the  envelope  of  body,  but  from  works?  And 
from  what  do  works  originate,  if  not  from 
passion,  and  this  again,  from  pride,  itself  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  a  want  of  discrimination, 
and  the  black  night  of  ignorance?  Alas !  while 
I  thought  myself  a  king,  what  was  I  but  a  chip, 
tossed  upon  the  waves  of  time;  a  very  bubble, 
rolling  from  side  to  side,  like  the  drop  of  rain 
water  on  the  leaf  of  a  blue  lotus;  more  momen- 
tary than  the  lightning  playing  on  the  clouds ; 
unsubstantial,  fleeting,  and  unsteady  as  the 
shadow  of  a  foolish  moth,  fluttering  about 


56  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

the  flame  of  a  flickering  torch  agitated  by 
sighing  gusts  of  wind? 

Then  said  the  pippala:  O  elephant,  thou 
speakest  the  very  truth;  nevertheless,  thy 
reflections  only  delay  the  progress  of  the  tale, 
and  thy  own  release  from  the  very  thing 
that  thou  deplorest;  and  at  this  rate,  the  sun 
will  return  to  us  long  before  thy  story  is 
half  told.  And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala, 
I  have  done.  Listen,  then,  to  the  story  of 
my  crime,  and  may  its  memory  desert  me, 
together  with  this  skin  of  a  forest  elephant, 
as  soon  as  it  is  told.  For  even  the  body  of  a 
brute  is  not  so  great  a  punishment  to  the 
evil-doer,  as  the  remorse  which  never  leaves 
him,  in  the  form  of  the  recollection  of  his 
crime. 


IV 


For  long  ago,  being,  as  I  told  thee,  a  king, 
named  Ruru,  I  was  married  in  my  youth  to  a 
queen.  And  she  was  beautiful,  with  a  beauty 
that  resembled  the  beauty  of  a  panther,  for 
it  was  fierce  and  spotted  and  treacherous  and 
crafty,  and  I  was  a  prey  to  it,  for  I  was  very 
young,  and  I  knew  not  an3rthing  of  woman 
but  her  shell.  And  I  was  devoted  to  my  wife, 
and  trusted  her  implicitly,  and  had  never  sus- 
pected her  fidelity  even  in  a  dream.  And  I 
returned  suddenly  one  evening  at  nightfall 
into  my  palace,  and  looked,  and  lo!  she  was 
fondling  another  man,  a  Rajpoot,  whom  she 
had  brought  into  the  palace  through  a  win- 
dow by  a  ladder,  having  fallen  in  love  with 
him  as  she  saw  him  in  the  street. 

So  when  I  saw  her,  I  uttered  a  cry,  and 

57 


58  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

stood.  But  they,  seeing  me,  separated  like 
a  flash  of  lightning,  and  fled,  he  back  into 
the  street,  and  she  to  her  own  apartments. 
And  where  he  went,  or  what  she  did,  I  know 
not.  But  when  the  dawn  was  breaking,  I 
looked,  and  again  I  saw  her  coming  back  with 
stealthy  step.  And  all  at  once,  as  she  came, 
she  looked,  and  saw  me  standing,  exactly 
where  I  stood  before,  never  having  moved,  all 
night  long.  And  instantly,  she  stopped  short, 
and  gazed  at  me  with  eyes  that  were  filled  with 
amazement,  which  changed,  as  I  watched  her, 
into  the  extremity  of  fear.  And  all  at  once, 
I  uttered  a  terrible  cry.  And  instantly  she 
sank  to  the  ground,  bereft  of  reason.  But  I 
turned,  and  ran  away,  and  went  out  into  the 
street. 

And  I  wandered  up  and  down  in  the  dark- 
ness that  was  just  becoming  daylight,  with  a 
soul  on  fire,  not  knowing  where  I  went  or 
what  I  did;  and  I  came  suddenly  upon  a 
miserable  wretch  in  ragged  garments,  and  I 
said  to  him:  Change  now  very  quickly  thy 
garments    for    my    own.     And    he,    looking 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  59 

at  me,  very  rapidly  agreed,  and  we  changed, 
and  I  gave  him  all  my  jewels,  and  put  on  his 
very  loathsome  rags;  and  so  he  went  away. 
And  I  said  to  myself:  Now  will  I  leave  my 
palace  and  my  kingdom,  and  become  a 
sannydsi,  turning  my  back  upon  the  world. 
And  lo!  almost  as  I  spoke,  another  man  sud- 
denly came  upon  me,  a  little  old  man  with 
grey  hair  that  escaped  from  his  handkerchief,  ^ 
and  keen  eyes  like  those  of  a  weasel.  And  he 
said  to  me:  Ha!  night-walker,  who  art  thou? 
And  I  laughed,  guessing  him  to  be  a  thief;  and 
I  said:  MaharajV  I  am  a  robber,  like  thy- 
self. Then  said  that  old  man :  I'  am  the  chief 
of  all  the  robbers  in  this  city,  and  I  know  thee 
not.  And  I  said:  How  shouldst  thou  know 
me,  who  am  but  just  arrived  in  the  city, 
having  fled  here  by  reason  of  trouble  in  my 
own?  And  he  said:  Wilt  thou  come  and  be 
of  mine?  And  I  said:  Aye!  with  thee  or  any 
other  rascal.     What  does  it  matter?   And  I 

'  i.e.  the  roomal  or  Paggri,  on  the  head:  one  of  the  two  essential 
garments  of  the  Hindoo;  used  by  the  Thags  as  a  strangling  noose. 
» This  term,  properly  applied  to  a  king,  is  by  politeness  or 
irony  also  used  much  as  we  use  Sir. 


6o  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

laughed  in  bitterness,  not  caring  if  I  died. 
Then  that  little  old  man  came  up  close,  and 
looked  at  me  narrowly  for  a  while;  and  he 
said:  Thou  art  very  young  and  handsome, 
and  as  I  think,  no  thief  at  all.  And  whence 
comes  the  trouble  of  the  young  but  from  wo- 
men? And  I  said:  O  king  of  robbers,  thou 
art  subtle;  for  I  am  indeed  the  victim  of  a 
woman,  and  my  life  is  at  an  end. 

And  then  suddenly,  that  strange  old  man 
struck  me  a  blow  with  his  open  hand  upon  my 
shoulder,  so  hard,  that  it  hurt.  And  he  ex- 
claimed: Fool!  art  thou  actually  grieving  for 
the  loss  of  a  woman?  What!  dost  thou  not 
know,  that  he  who  loses  one,  can  find  with- 
out any  difficulty  a  hundred  other  women, 
just  as  good  or  better  than  herself?  And 
as  he  spoke,  all  at  once  I  began  to  laugh,  and 
as  I  laughed,  I  cried.  And  I  exclaimed:  Ha! 
old  thief,  I  am  obliged  to  thee;  and  like  a  good 
physician,  thou  hast  cured  my  malady,  with 
words  that  are  sharper  than  a  knife.  But 
beware!  for  if  I  ever  meet  thee  again,  I  will 
have  thee  thrown  to  be  trampled  by  an  ele- 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  6i 

phant.  And  then  I  turned  my  back  upon 
him,  and  went  away,  and  left  him  standing, 
saying  to  myself  as  I  went :  He  is  right.  And 
now,  then,  I  will  go  back  into  my  palace, 
and  make  all  the  other  women  in  the  three 
worlds  pay  for  the  conduct  of  my  wife.  Ha! 
I  should  indeed  have  been  a  fool,  to  become  a 
sannydsi,  for  such  a  thing  as  her;  and  this 
old  rascal  has  raised  me  as  it  were  from  the 
dead,  and  replaced  the  danda^  in  my  hand. 

And  then,  O  pippala,  as  I  said,  so  I  did.  And 
laying  the  burden  of  the  state  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  my  minister,  Trishodadhi,  I  ran  wild 
amongthe  women  of  my  kingdom,  and  I  became 
an  object  of  dread  to  every  one  of  my  subjects 
that  had  either  a  daughter  or  a  sister  or  a  wife. 

And  as  he  listened,  Trishodadhi  said  within 
himself:  Aye!  robber  of  a  king,  so  it  was;  and 
little  dost  thou  dream  how  close  to  thee  is  a 
living  witness  to  the  truth  of  thy  words.  And 
all  forgetful  of  his  muttering,  he  listened 
eagerly  for  the  remainder  of  the  tale. 

'i.e.  the  rod  of  punishmenir,'  one  of  the  essential  attributes 
of  a  king. 


And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  as  it  hap- 
pened, I  had  for  my  wita^  a  very  incarnation 
of  malignity  and  craft,  on  whom  I  laid  the 
duty  of  discovering  every  woman  in  my  king- 
dom or  elsewhere,  whose  beauty  might  make 
her  worthy  of  my  regard.  And  this  wita,  while 
bringing  to  my  notice  every  day  the  trea- 
sures of  others,  never  told  me  of  his  own,  but 
kept  me  scrupulously  ignorant.  But  one  day 
there  came  to  me  one  of  his  agents,  to  whom 
he  had  done  some  injury  or  other,  and  he 
said:  O  Maharaj,  thy  wita  is  offering  thee 
husks,  and  keeping  back  the  kernel;  possessing 
as  he  does  a  daughter  more  beautiful  than  the 
moon.  And  hearing  this,  I  flew  into  a  rage. 
And  I  sent  for  the  wita,  and  compelled  him, 

'  The  function  of  the  wita  in  old  Hindoo  courts  was  analogous 
to  that  of  Chiffinch  in  Peveril  oj  the  Peak, 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  63 

under  penalty  of  death,  to  produce  his 
daughter;  and  I  took  her  away  from  him,  dis- 
regarding all  his  prayers.  So  at  last,  finding 
all  his  supplications  useless,  all  at  once  that 
wita  yielded,  and  acquiesced  in  his  dishonour, 
like  an  elephant  tamed.  Ha!  had  I  only 
known  him,  I  should  have  put  him  instantly 
to  death ;  for  he  was  but  waiting  till  he  saw  his 
opportunity.  And  the  consequence  of  my 
action  in  this  matter  of  the  wita  and  his 
daughter  lay  waiting:  till  the  time  came,  when 
it  rose  up  suddenly  like  a  cobra,  and  bit  me 
in  the  heel. 

But  in  the  meantime,  careless  of  the  wita 
and  his  vengeance,  I  lived  like  a  mad  bee, 
intent  upon  nothing  but  ruining  the  lotuses 
that  I  rifled  of  their  honey,  remaining  be- 
side each,  only  so  long  as  was  necessary  to 
destroy  it,  after  sipping  its  sweet.  And 
gradually  my  kingdom  began  to  assume  the 
semblance  of  a  garden,  in  which  every  tree 
was  mourning,  bewailing  the  fate  of  its  love- 
liest blossoms,  which  lay  on  the  ground, 
trampled  as  it  were  into  the  mud.     Enough! 


64  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

for  why  should  I  detain  thee,  and  delay  my 
own  emancipation  from  this  carcase  of  an 
elephant  by  enumerating  details  that  are  not 
to  the  point.  Know,  that  there  came  a  day, 
when  having  left  as  usual  the  burden  of  the 
kingdom  on  the  shoulders  of  my  minister,  I 
went  out  into  the  forest  to  hunt.  And  after  a 
while,  growing  weary  of  the  chase,  I  dismissed 
my  attendants,  and  came  slowly  home  alone, 
wandering  after  them  on  foot.  And  I  lin- 
gered as  I  went,  listening  to  the  noise  of  the 
canes,  singing  in  the  breeze;  aye!  well  do  I 
remember  the  music  that  they  made,  as  if 
prognosticating  by  their  exquisite  melody 
the  sweetness  of  the  meeting  that  was  just 
on  the  very  point  of  crossing  my  steps,  to 
plunge  my  soul,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  as 
it  were  into  a  vat,  and  change  its  dye,  turn- 
ing it  first  into  red,  and  finally  into  deep  and 
inalterable  blue.  ^ 

For  as  I  rambled  slowly  on,  it  happened,  by 
destiny's  decree,   that   a   necklace   of   great 

'  Red  is  the  colour  of  affection,  and  blue  that  of  its  highest 
power,  devotion  that  is  immortal  and  indelible. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  65 

pearls,  that  I  always  wore  around  my  neck,  its 
clasp  coming  open,  slipped  off,  and  fell  upon 
the  ground.  And  at  that  very  moment,  a 
bird  of  the  race  of  hawks  pounced  suddenly 
upon  it,  and  carried  it  away,  attracted  by  its 
glitter,  or  who  knows?  For  I  think  that  the 
very  god  of  Love  took,  it  may  be,  that  form 
of  a  bird,  to  bring  about  his  end.  And  I  ran 
after  it,  as  it  were  awaking  from  my  musing, 
with  a  shout,  and  the  bird,  after  flying  a  little 
way,  becoming  frightened,  or  it  may  be,  by 
express  design,  let  fall  the  necklace  from  his 
claws,  and  flew  away.  And  seeing  it  fall,  I 
ran  towards  it,  and  all  at  once,  I  found  my 
way  blocked  by  a  very  high  wall,  on  the 
farther  side  of  which  the  necklace  fell.  And 
I  went  up  to  that  wall,  and  as  I  did  so,  I 
listened,  and  heard  the  noise  of  steps  beyond 
the  wall.  And  instantly  I  called  aloud:  O 
thou,  whoever  thou  art,  beyond  the  wall, 
know,  that  the  necklace  is  mine.  And  hear- 
ing no  answer,  I  looked  about,  and  seeing  a  tree 
standing  near,  I  swung  myself  up,  by  means 
of  its  branches,  upon  the  wall,  and  looked 


66  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

over.  And  when  I  did  so,  lo!  there  below  me 
in  the  garden  stood  a  young  woman,  looking 
up  towards  me;  and  on  the  ground  was  the 
necklace,  lying  at  her  very  feet. 

And  as  I  looked  down  at  her,  O  pippala, 
all  at  once  the  necklace,  the  very  object  of 
my  coming,  vanished  clean  out  of  my  mind, 
obliterated  in  an  instant,  and  swept  into 
oblivion  by  the  wonder  of  her  eyes.  And 
yet  it  was  not  merely  their  beauty  that 
amazed  me,  pools  of  lapis  lazuli  though  they 
were,  to  whose  brink  that  bird  had  brought 
me,  as  if  to  drown  me,  dizzy  at  their  very 
depth.  But  strange!  fixed  as  they  were, 
upturned  towards  me,  bent  and  as  it  were 
pointed  full  upon  my  own,  they  never 
wavered,  and  I  was  puzzled  by  their  gaze. 
For  there  was  no  curiosity  at  all  in  them, 
nor  any  trace  of  timidity  or  fear,  far  less  of 
challenge,  or  anger,  or  agitation,  or  any 
tumult  of  emotion,  but  rather  an  ocean,  and 
as  it  were  an  atmosphere  of  silence,  and 
shadowy  peace,  and  a  spirit  of  unutterable 
quiet  and  repose,  like  that  of  some  un violated 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  67 

water,  bound  by  a  spell  of  secrecy  and  lying 
hidden  in  the  middle  of  a  forest,  on  whose 
dark  film  the  dead  leaves  lie,  unmoved  by 
animals  that  drink,  or  winds  that  blow. 
And  so  little  did  I  seem  to  be  the  target  of 
those  motionless  unfathomable  eyes,  that  I 
would  have  turned  my  head,  to  discover  what 
thing  other  than  myself  it  was  that  she  re- 
garded, but  that  I  coiild  not  look  away  from 
them  at  all.  And  she  stood  with  her  head, 
a  little  bent,  like  one  that  listens  rather  than 
that  looks,  and  thrown  just  a  very  little  back 
upon  her  shoulders,  so  that  all  unknown  to  her 
the  round  bosses  of  her  wide  and  glorious 
bosom  stretched  out  and  up  towards  me,  as  if 
dying  to  express  that  curiosity  and  agitation 
which  was  wanting  in  her  eyes,  while  her 
slender  figure,  like  a  stalk,  stood  still  and 
seemed  to  sway,  as  if  with  anxiety,  lest  the 
weight  that  it  supported  should  snap  it  in  the 
middle.  And  as  I  sat  gazing,  lost  in  a  sea 
of  perplexity  and  admiration,  all  at  once  she 
spoke,  and  said  in  a  low  voice  that  resembled 
a  caress  rendered  audible  to  the  ear:  Who  art 


68  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

thou,  if,  as  I  guess,  thou  hast  climbed  upon 
the  wall,  and  what  is  thy  intention? 

And  I  said,  with  confusion  and  surprise:  I 
came  upon  the  wall,  O  lady  of  the  lovely  eyes, 
to  recover  yonder  necklace  which  is  lying  at 
thy  feet.  Then  she  said:  Dost  thou  see  it 
lying?  And  I  said:  Surely  I  see  it  very 
plainly,  as  thou  dost  also.  Then  she  said: 
Come  down,  then,  and  take  it,  and  begone. 
For  I  cannot  do  it  for  thee,  seeing  that  I  am 
blind. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  groaned 
within  himself.  And  he  murmured:  Aye! 
indeed!  alas!  so  she  was;  and  these  were  her 
very  eyes:  and  now  well  I  know  that  the  story 
of  this  elephant  is  true.  And  all  oblivious  of 
his  muttering,  he  listened  to  the  tale. 


VI 


And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  when  I 
heard  her,  I  came  within  a  little  of  falling 
from  the  wall,  struck  by  the  shock  of  pity  and 
amazement  at  her  words.  And  I  exclaimed: 
Blind,  O  thou  beautiful  and  unfortunate! 
But  thou  art  surely  jesting.  What!  can  such 
eyes  as  thine,  more  lovely  than  the  pool  in 
which  the  lotuses  delight,  O,  which  put  to 
shame  the  very  heaven  at  midnight  with  its 
stars,  be  really  blind?  And  she  said,  quietly: 
Yet  is  it  as  I  say.  And  I  struck  my  hands  to- 
gether, and  groaned  aloud,  almost  weeping, 
for  remorse  and  despair.  And  I  exclaimed: 
Out,  out  on  the  Creator,  who  could  be  guilty 
of  so  criminal  a  blunder  as  to  make  such  eyes 
as  thine,  and  yet  forget  to  give  them  sight, 
which  he  has  been  so  careful  to  remember  in 

69 


70  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

the  case  of  every  common  eye!  Then  she 
said  gently:  Nay,  utter  no  blame  of  the 
Creator.  Blame  rather  me  myself,  since 
doubtless  this  my  blindness  is  a  punishment 
deserved,  for  sins  committed  by  myself,  in 
some  forgotten  former  birth,  and  the  fruit  of 
a  tree  I  and  no  other  planted.  Or  rather, 
blame  not  anything  at  all,  since  thy  business 
is  neither  with  my  eyes,  nor  me,  at  all,  but 
rather  with  thy  necklace.  Come,  as  I  said, 
and  take  it  quickly,  and  begone. 

And  I  looked  at  her  for  a  moment  in  agita- 
tion, and  I  said,  with  emphasis:  Take  thou  the 
necklace;  it  is  no  longer  mine,  having  fallen  at 
the  feet  of  its  proper  owner:  and  wise  was  the 
bird  that  stole  it  from  me,  to  lay  it  where  it  is. 
This  only  I  regret,  that  alas!  thou  canst  not 
see  it,  for  it  is  worthy  of  beauty  such  as  thine. 
And  she  smiled,  looking  at  me,  as  it  were,  with 
those  eyes  that  did  not  falter,  and  she  said: 
Stranger,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee  or  with 
thy  necklace?  Come,  now,  cease  talking  non- 
sense on  the  wall,  to  one  that  must  not  listen; 
but  take  thy  necklace  and  begone. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  71 

O  pippala,  I  know  not  if  I  tell  thee  what 
befell,  so  as  to  make  thee  comprehend.  But 
know,  that  in  that  moment  since  I  came  upon 
the  wall,  I  was  changed.  For  her  voice  com- 
pleted what  her  eyes  began,  and  her  smile 
took  my  heart,  and  set  it  shaking  like  a  leaf 
with  an  ecstasy  of  rapture  and  anxiety,  caus- 
ing me  to  tremble  with  so  violent  an  agitation 
that  I  could  hardly  keep  my  place  upon  the 
wall.  And  I  knew  that  I  was  looking  at  a 
woman  of  a  kind  that  I  had  never  seen  before, 
and  I  tossed  away  my  past  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye.  And  I  said  to  myself,  quivering 
with  the  extremity  of  delight  and  the  fever  of 
determination:  Ha!  then  as  it  seems,  destiny 
waited  till  this  moment,  to  show  me  perfec- 
tion in  the  form  of  the  woman  of  my  dreams. 
And  what!  O  thou  matchless,  intoxicating 
beauty,  now  that  I  have  found  thee,  dost  thou 
bid  me  go  away,  and  leave  thee  as  soon  as 
found  ?  Nay,  nay ;  not  for  the  three  great  worlds 
with  all  that  they  contain,  will  I  consent  ever  to 
part  from  thee  again.  And  now,  thou  shalt  be 
my  wife  and  queen,  whether  thou  wilt  or  no. 


72  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

And  at  that  moment,  I  think  that  the  very- 
god  of  Love  himself  put  a  thought  into  my 
heart.  And  I  looked  at  her  with  fierce  affec- 
tion, as  she  stood  waiting  quietly  below,  and 
said  softly  to  myself:  I  will  stay,  O  peremp- 
tory beauty,  in  despite  of  thee,  and  all  the 
powers  of  earth  and  heaven  combined.  And 
I  said  to  her  aloud:  Since  then  I  must,  and 
thou  permittest,  I  will  descend,  and  take  it, 
and  begone.  And  I  leaped  from  the  wall  to- 
wards her,  awkward  by  express  design,  in- 
tending to  feign  injury  to  myself,  and  with 
so  good  a  will,  that  as  it  happened,  I  actually 
did  the  very  thing  I  meant  to  feign.  And  fell 
heavily,  bruising  my  foot  upon  the  ground  be- 
side her,  so  that  she  drew  back  in  alarm.  And 
I  uttered  a  moan  that  was  anything  but 
feigned.  And  immediately  she  said,  with 
commiseration  in  her  voice :  Alas !  now  I  fear 
my  impotence  has  been  a  cause  of  injury  to 
thyself.  Art  thou  hurt?  And  I  said :  Nay, 
it  is  nothing.  Let  me  rest  for  but  a  moment, 
and  so  I  will  depart.  And  she  hesitated,  and 
said  with  indecision:  This  is  a  misfortune  and 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  73 

a  difficulty.  For  I  know  thee  not,  being  ut- 
terly in  the  dark  about  thee;  and  I  dare  not 
stay  beside  thee,  not  knowing  who  thou  art. 
And  yet,  if  thy  voice  is  any  indication  of  thy 
quality,  I  think  I  need  not  fear  thee.  And  I 
said  hastily:  Fear  absolutely  nothing;  and 
I  will  tell  thee  my  family  and  name,  in  ex- 
change for  thy  own.  And  easy  is  it  to  per- 
ceive that  thou  art  no  common  person's 
wife.  Then  she  said:  I  am  called  Wat- 
satari,  and  my  husband  is  the  minister  of  the 
king,  of  whom  doubtless  thou  hast  heard,  ^ 
since  everybody  knows  him,  not  only  in  this 
city,  but  elsewhere. 

And  once  again  I  started  and  exclaimed: 
What!  the  wife  of  Trishodadhi?  Then  she 
said:  I  see,  thou  knowest.  And  I  said  again: 
What!  can  it  be?  Trishodadhi?  And  as  I 
spoke,  I  looked  at  her  in  absolute  dismay. 
And  I  murmured  to  myself:  Alas !  alas!  Had 
she  only  been  the  wife  of  any  other  husband 
in  the  three  wide  worlds,  only  not  of  him. 

'  A  Hindoo  woman  will  never  mention  her  husband's  name. 
They  allude  to  him  in  terms  that  correspond  to  the  Latin  isie,  tile. 


74  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  exclaimed 
within  himself:  Ah!  yes,  indeed;  thou  art 
right.  Had  it  only  been  any  other  hus- 
band than  myself,  indeed  it  had  been  well. 
And  oblivious  of  his  muttering,  he  Hstened  in 
agitation  to  thetale. 


VII 

And  the  elephant  said :  Pippala,  as  I  gazed 
at  her,  struck  by  the  thunderbolt  of  astonish- 
ment and  dismay,  my  heart  smote  me:  for 
all  unintentionally,  I  found  myself  playing 
the  traitor  to  my  minister,  and  becoming,  as 
indeed  I  was  already,  the  worshipper  of  his 
wife.  And  well  I  knew,  that  love  would 
prove  stronger  than  gratitude,  and  more 
powerful  than  friendship,  and  that  he  was 
already  doomed.  And  I  said  to  myself:  Ha! 
now  destiny  and  the  deity  of  Love  have  com- 
bined, to  throw  me,  as  it  were  against  my 
will,  into  the  company  of  one  whom  I  had 
determined  to  avoid,  and  are  driving  me  to 
injure  one  whom  I  would  rather  wish  to 
honour  and  regard.  But  now  it  is  too  late, 
and  well  I  see,  that  will  happen  which  must 
happen,  and  she  and  I  and  her  husband  are 

75 


76  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

but  puppets,  dancing  to  the  bidding  of  powers 
that  are  greater  than  our  own.  And  once 
again  I  murmured:  Watsatari;  Trishodadhi; 
it  cannot  be.  Then  she  said:  Who  art  thou, 
to  be  so  well  acquainted,  as  it  seems  thou  art, 
both  with  my  husband  and  myself,  and  what 
is  there  in  the  circumstances  that  arouses  in 
thee  such  surprise? 

And  as  I  looked  at  her,  I  trembled,  saying  to 
myself:  Now  perhaps  it  is  as  well,  she  can- 
not see.  And  now  I  dare  not  tell  her  who  I 
am,  for  that  would  be  utter  ruin,  since  doubt- 
less rumour  has  told  her  all  about  me.  And 
I  thought  for  a  moment,  and  then  all  at  once 
I  laughed  aloud.  And  I  exclaimed:  O  wife 
of  Trishodadhi,  if  one  should  have  commis- 
sioned thee,  saying.  Go  at  dead  of  night  to  the 
very  middle  of  the  sea,  and  there  catch  in 
its  immensity  a  single  little  mina^  that  has 
swallowed  such-and-such  a  ring;  and  thou 
going  accordingly  and  grasping  blindly  in  its 
water  shouldst  find  that  very  fish  enclosed  in 
thy  hand,  say,  would  it  not  surprise  thee  also, 

»A  kind  of  fish. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  'j'] 

to  find  chance  putting  into  thy  clutch  a  thing 
no  ingenuity  could  ever  have  discovered? 
And  she  said  with  a  smile:  Who  then  is  the 
fish;  is  it  I,  or  is  it  he?  And  I  said:  It  is  thy 
own  pretty  neck  which  is  the  fish;  for  yon- 
der necklace  was  commissioned  to  encircle  it. 
And  now  let  me  tell  thee,  since  I  see  thou  art 
suspicious  of  myself,  fearing  no  doubt  the 
anger  of  thy  husband,  should  he  discover  thee 
in  my  society,  that  he  would  hardly  have  ex- 
cused thee  for  sending  me  away,  as  presently 
he  himself  will  tell  thee,  as  soon  as  he  re- 
turns. For  know  that  I  am  a  Rajpoot,  and 
the  confidential  agent  of  a  neighbouring  king, 
to  whom  thy  husband  lately  rendered  by  his 
policy  an  inestimable  service.  And  since  he 
absolutely  refused  reward,  the  king  my  master 
said  to  me:  Gratitude,  like  a  river,  dammed 
in  one  direction,  will  find  an  outlet  in  another; 
and  since  I  may  do  nothing  for  Trishodadhi,  I 
will  at  least  do  something  for  his  wife.  For 
I  have  heard,  that  she  is  of  incomparable 
beauty.  Take,  then,  this  necklace,  and  an- 
swer for  its  safety  with  thy  head.    And  ride 


78  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

night  and  day,  going  towards  the  capital  of 
Ruru,  and  seek  out  his  minister,  and  ask  for 
Watsatarl  his  wife.  And  when  she  is  actually 
before  thee,  put  with  thy  own  hands  the 
necklace  on  her  neck,  and  say:  King  Chand- 
radatta  bids  thee  know,  by  this  emblem,  that 
the  chain  of  obligation  to  thee  and  to  thy  hus- 
band is  on  his  neck,  and  when  there  is  a  dif- 
ficulty, send  him  this;  and  he  will  overcome  it. 
And  now,  right  glad  I  am  to  find  thee;  for  I 
have  not  slept  since  I  started,  for  fear  of  losing 
the  necklace,  and  forfeiting  my  head.  And 
surely  the  bird  which  filched  it  from  me  to 
carry  it  to  thee  was  some  deity  in  disguise; 
for  how  could  a  mere  bird  know,  for  whom  it 
was  designed?  So  take  thou  the  necklace,  and 
when  thy  husband  sees  it,  summon  me:  and 
I  will  tell  him  also,  and  depart. 

And  she  listened  attentively,  looking  as  it 
were  straight  at  me  as  I  lied,  till  I  trembled, 
rejoicing,  and  yet  hardly  crediting,  that  she 
could  not  see  me;  and  when  I  ended,  she 
stood  meditating,  while  I  watched  her,  in 
ecstasy  at  having  hit  upon  a  clever  lie,  by 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  79 

means  of  which  I  hoped  to  prolong  our  con- 
versation, and  look  at  her  with  impunity, 
careless  of  what  might  come  of  it  at  last.  And 
presently  she  said:  Where  then  is  the  neck- 
lace? And  I  placed  it  in  the  lotus  of  the  hand 
she  held  toward  me,  stealing  guilty  unde- 
tected glances  at  her  creeper  of  an  arm;  and 
she  took  it,  and  felt  it  all  over,  telling  every 
pearl,  exactly  as  yonder  old  ascetic  told  his 
beads  as  I  passed  him;  while  I  stood  gazing 
at  her,  hardly  able  to  draw  breath.  And 
after  a  while  she  said:  Surely  these  pearls 
are  very  large?  And  I  said:  There  are  no 
others  equal  to  them,  even  in  the  sea.  And 
she  sighed  a  very  little,  and  she  said  with  re- 
gret: Their  beauty  is  for  other  eyes  than 
mine.  And  I  watched  her  eagerly,  saying  to 
myself:  Ha!  can  it  be  that  this  delicious 
beauty  resembles  all  her  far  inferior  sisters, 
and  is  tempted  by  the  pearls  she  cannot  see? 
O  pippala,  I  tell  thee,  that  though  it  made  for 
my  advantage,  it  was  a  grief  to  me  to  find  her, 
as  I  thought,  like  other  women.  Ha!  but  I 
did  her  wrong,  and  did  not  know  her,  for  she 


8o  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

had  something  in  her  soul  that  I  did  not 
understand. 

And  all  at  once,  half,  as  I  conjectured,  in 
derision,  and  half,  it  may  be,  tempted  by  the 
shadow  of  a  wish  to  try  them  on  her  neck,  she 
took  the  necklace  by  both  ends  in  her  hands, 
and  hung  it  up  aroimd  her  throat,  letting  those 
lucky  pearls  rest  for  a  single  instant  on  the 
margin  of  her  swelling  breast.  And  utterly 
bewildered,  instantly  I  forgot  my  self-con- 
trol. And  I  stepped  forward,  saying  hastily: 
Nay,  thou  dost  not  know  the  secret  of  its 
clasp.  And  before  she  could  prevent  me, 
for  blind  as  she  was,  she  knew  not  what  I 
meditated,  I  put  my  two  arms,  that  trembled 
with  intoxication  and  timidity,  and  wonder 
at  their  own  audacity,  suddenly  around  her 
neck,  and  took  the  two  ends  of  the  necklace  in 
my  hands,  and  placing  them  together,  was 
just  about  to  clasp  them.  And  at  that  very 
moment,  I  looked,  and  lo!  there,  at  a  dis- 
tance in  the  garden,  stood  Trishodadhi  her 
husband,  looking  at  me  with  eyes  that  re- 
sembled caverns,  filled  with  black  and  shin- 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  8i 

ing    water    in    the    form     of     unutterable 
despair. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  groaned 
within  himself,  writhing  as  he  sat  at  the  re- 
miniscence of  that  moment,  which  shot  into 
his  heart  like  a  flame.  And  utterly  oblivious 
of  his  muttering,  he  listened  eagerly  for  the 
remainder  of  the  tale. 


VIII 

And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  when  my 
eyes  met  his,  I  stood  absolutely  still,  like  a 
bird  fascinated  by  the  glare  of  a  snake,  alto- 
gether forgetting  what  it  was  that  I  was  do- 
ing, and  what  it  was  that  I  was  holding  in  my 
arms.  And  all  at  once  he  turned  and  went 
away,  without  ever  looking  round.  And  at 
that  very  instant  Watsatari,  all  ignorant  of 
his  presence  and  the  cause  of  my  behaviour, 
pushed  me  suddenly  away,  with  such  force  as 
all  but  to  overthrow  me.  And  as  I  gazed  at 
her  like  one  dreaming,  intent  on  nothing  but 
her  husband's  interruption,  I  saw  an  angry 
flush  rise  like  dawn  upon  her  face,  and  stand- 
ing like  a  queen,  she  knitted  her  bow-like 
brows  in  wrath,  and  exclaimed,  in  a  voice 

that   shook  with  indignation:   Dastard,  dost 

82 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  83 

thou  dare  to  take  such  cowardly  advantage 
of  my  incapacity?  Get  thee  gone,  and 
approach  me,  if  at  all,  at  the  bidding  of  my 
husband.  And  she  took  the  necklace,  and  tear- 
ing it  from  her  neck,  still  unfastened  as  it  was, 
she  threw  it  violently  away,  not  caring  where 
it  fell.  And  I  in  my  agitation,  cowed  by  her 
vehemence  and  the  apparition  of  her  husband, 
instantly  obeyed  her.  And  I  exclaimed:  O 
wife  of  Trishodadhi,  thou  art  mistaken  and 
unjust,  but  I  obey  thee.  And  I  climbed  the 
wall,  not  so  much  as  even  remembering  the 
necklace,  and  hastened  home,  saying  to  my- 
self: Now,  very  likely,  he  will  kill  her.  And 
if  so,  I  myself  shall  miserably  perish,  unable 
to  endure  my  life  without  her;  and  what  is  to 
be  done?  And  I  sent  hastily,  as  soon  as  I 
arrived,  for  Trishodadhi,  not  knowing  what 
to  say  to  him  when  he  should  arrive.  But 
very  soon  my  messengers  returned,  saying: 
Maharaj,  Trishodadhi  is  nowhere  to  be  found. 
And  I  sent  them  back,  with  orders  to  bring 
him  as  soon  as  he  could  come.  And  all  that 
night  I  waited  in  anxiety,  sleepless,  haunted  by 


84  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

the  picture  of  Watsatarf,  and  fearing  for  her 
life.  Then  in  the  morning,  those  messengers 
returned  again,  saying :  Maharaj ,  Trishodadhi 
has  disappeared,  and  no  one  can  tell  us  any- 
thing about  him,  or  whither  he  has  gone. 

So  when  I  heard  it,  I  said  within  myself: 
Now,  beyond  a  doubt,  he  has  hidden  him- 
self somewhere,  fearing  for  his  life.  And  I 
sent  everywhere  to  search  for  him;  and  in  the 
meanwhile,  I  went  back  secretly  once  more  to 
that  garden,  and  climbed  upon  the  wall, 
only  to  find  it  empty,  for  Watsatari  was  gone. 
And  after  a  while  I  came  away,  sick  with 
disappointment,  only  to  discover  that  still 
Trishodadhi  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  And 
so  for  many  days  it  continued ;  and  every  day 
I  went  in  vain  to  look  for  Watsatari  in  the 
garden,  and  it  seemed  as  though  Trishodadhi 
and  she  had  plotted  to  disappear  together, 
without  leaving  any  trace.  But  after  a  while, 
finding  by  inquiry  that  the  wife  of  Trishodadhi 
was  looking  for  him,  exactly  like  myself,  I 
sent  her  a  message  from  the  king,  saying: 
Thy  husband  has  vanished,  and  much  I  fear, 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  85 

that  some  enemy  has  made  away  with  him, 
leaving  the  affairs  of  my  kingdom  in  confusion, 
for  want  of  his  sagacity.  But  know,  that  I 
am  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  find  him,  and 
do  not  be  alarmed.  For  it  may  be  that  he  is 
absent  in  pursuit  of  some  object  of  his  policy, 
of  his  own  accord. 

And  then  at  last,  parched  with  intolerable 
thirst,  and  unable  any  longer  to  endure  separa- 
tion from  its  cause,  I  went  one  day  as  usual  to 
the  garden,  and  mounted  on  the  wall,  and 
looked.  And  lo!  there  she  was  again,  look- 
ing up  towards  me  on  the  wall,  and  listening, 
exactly  as  she  did  before.  And  at  the  sight 
of  her,  my  heart  almost  leaped  out  of  my  body 
with  delight.  And  instantly,  without  waiting 
for  permission,  I  sprang  from  the  wall,  and 
went  towards  her;  and  as  I  did  so,  something 
moved  under  my  foot.  And  I  looked,  and  it 
was  the  necklace,  that  had  lain  there  where 
she  threw  it,  ever  since.  And  I  left  it  lying, 
and  exclaimed:  O  wife  of  Trishodadhi,  as  it 
appears,  I  have  discovered  thee  at  last.  Listen 
now,  without  losing  any  time;  and  even  as  it 


86  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

is,  I  fear,  lest  we  should  be  overheard  by 
spies.  And  she  said  qtiietly:  What  is  the 
matter?  Then  I  said:  Thou  knowest  that 
thy  husband  has  been  missing,  ever  since  I  saw 
thee  first.  And  she  said:  I  know.  Then  I 
said:  Dost  thou  know  where  he  is  gone? 
And  she  said:  No.  And  I  said:  I  am  here 
to  tell  thee.  For  no  sooner  had  I  left  thee 
than  I  went  to  him;  and  I  foimd  him  on  the 
very  point  of  setting  out  upon  a  journey. 
And  I  told  him  of  our  meeting  in  the  garden  ; 
and  he  listened,  and  when  I  ended,  he  said 
quickly:  This  is  no  time  for  necklaces  of 
pearls.  For  know,  that  I  have  just  dis- 
covered, by  certain  information,  that  King 
Ruru,  having  somehow  or  other  cast  eyes 
upon  my  wife,  has  fallen  so  violently  in  love 
with  her,  that  he  cannot  even  sleep.  And 
well  I  know  what  he  will  do,  since  only  too 
often  has  he  exhibited  specimens  of  his  be- 
haviour, ia  the  case  of  other  wives  than  mine. 
And  therefore,  while  yet  time  suffers,  I  am 
escaping,  since  if  he  catches  me,  well  he 
knows,  and  I  know,  that  he  will  catch  Wat- 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  87 

sataii  as  well.  For  where  I  ani,  she  will  be 
also,  seeing  that  a  good  wife  such  as  she  is  can- 
not desert  her  husband,  even  in  a  dream. 
But  if,  as  I  am  now  about  to  do,  I  can  only- 
place  myself  beyond  his  reach,  she  also  will  be 
safe.  For  he  will  not  dare  openly  to  carry 
her  away,  at  least  for  a  little  while,  and  in  the 
interval,  I  will  remove  her  secretly  myself. 
And  now  the  deity  has  sent  thee  to  me,  in  the 
very  nick  of  time;  and  I  place  her  in  thy 
hands,  more  valuable  than  any  necklace. 
Go  to  her  quickly,  for  no  one  will  suspect  thee, 
and  bring  her,  telling  absolutely  no  one,  for  I 
cannot  trust  any  of  my  household,  who  fear 
the  king,  and  are,  it  may  be,  in  his  pay.  But 
thou  shalt  help  me  to  cheat  him  of  his  prey. 
And  then  he  told  me  of  his  hiding-place,  and 
went  away;  and  ever  since,  I  have  sought  thee 
in  this  garden,  day  by  day,  striving  to  dis- 
cover thee,  without  letting  any  even  of  his 
household  know.  And  now  at  last  I  find 
thee,  and  nothing  more  remains,  but  to 
make  arrangements,  how  and  when  I  shall 
come   to    thee,    to   carry   thee   away.    And 


88  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

now,  delay  not,  for  the  king's  eye  is  on 
thee;  and  every  future  hour  may  be  too 
late.  And  the  very  necklace  may  be  to  thee 
a  pledge  of  my  fidelity.  For  yonder  it  lies, 
exactly  where  it  fell  from  thy  hand,  though  I 
had  only  to  lift  it,  to  carry  it  away  and  make 
it  mine. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  ground  his 
teeth  together,  and  exclaimed  within  himself: 
Ah!  perjured  king  and  royal  liar,  well  didst 
thou  deserve  to  fall,  not  only  into  that  body 
of  an  elephant,  but  something  lower  still. 


IX 


And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  when  I 
ended,  all  at  once  that  lady  of  the  steady  eyes 
laughed  as  it  were  in  my  very  face.  And  while 
I  stood  confounded  and  astounded  by  her 
laughter,  which  poured  from  her  like  a  stream, 
she  broke  off  abruptly,  and  she  said :  O  King 
Rum,  I  congratulate  thee  from  my  heart  on 
thy  extraordinary  talent  for  deceit.  And  I 
waited,  just  to  hear  what  further  artifice  thou 
hadst  concocted,  in  order  to  beguile  me.  And 
I  admire  thy  roguery,  and  as  I  think,  King 
Bhartrihari'  was  but  a  novice  in  comparison 
with  thee,  such  a  master  art  thou  of  thy  trade, 
and  all  the  arts  of  cozening  my  sex.     But  now, 

'  The  aphorisms  of  this  king,  who  according  to  tradition 
combined  the  usually  incompatible  professions  of  king,  poet, 
grammarian,  gay  Lothario,  and  sage,  are  household  words  in 
India. 

89 


90  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

cease  wallowing  like  a  hog  in  the  mire  of  lying 
and  deceit,  and  tell  me  truly,  what  thou  hast 
done  with  my  husband.  For  know,  that  thou 
wouldst  never  have  found  me  here  to-day  to 
meet  thee,  but  for  my  determination  to  ask  of 
thee  this  very  question.  Hast  thou  mur- 
dered him,  or  stolen  him  away,  or  what? 

And  as  she  spoke,  I  staggered,  like  one  that 
has  received  a  blow.  And  I  ejaculated:  O 
lady,  art  thou  dreaming,  or  what  is  this  de- 
lusion? And  then,  angrily  she  stamped  her 
little  foot  upon  the  ground.  And  she  said 
sternly,  yet  with  derision:  O  King,  has  not 
thy  own  experience  yet  taught  thee,  that 
kings  are  harder  to  conceal  than  the  very  sun 
at  noon?  And  has  thy  dealing  with  such  mul- 
titudes of  women  not  yet  shown  thee,  that 
even  a  king,  versed  in  trickery  and  every 
diplomatic  art,  might  take  lessons  in  intrigue 
from  any  woman,  aye,  even  from  so  incom- 
plete a  specimen  of  womankind  as  me?  Hast 
thou  allowed  thyself  to  be  outwitted  even  by 
the  blind?  And  she  laughed,  while  I  gazed  at 
her,  astounded  by  her  exaltation,  arising  like  a 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  91 

storm  in  such  gentleness  as  hers,  and  help- 
less in  my  anger,  which  was  impotent,  being 
swallowed  by  admiration  for  her  beauty  and 
her  craft.  And  presently  she  said:  What! 
art  thou  dumb  at  last,  and  has  thy  volu- 
ble eloquence  deserted  thee,  when  truth  was 
wanted  rather  than  a  lie?  Know,  that  I 
suspected  thee,  from  the  very  first,  for  thy 
voice  betrayed  thee,  carrying  in  it  as  it  were  an 
echo  of  command.  And  for  this  very  reason 
was  it  that  I  fingered  thy  necklace,  by  ex- 
press design,  to  ascertain  whether  thou  wert 
speaking  truth  about  its  value.  And  I  said 
privately  to  myself,  as  I  handled  it:  This  is 
surely  the  ornament  of  no  other  than  a  king. 
And  as  to  thy  story  of  the  bird  that  brought 
it  hither,  well  I  understand  that  it  was  a  fable, 
like  thy  fish ;  and  thy  necklace  was  nothing  but 
a  snare,  by  means  of  which  thou  didst  hope  to 
bribe  me,  cunning  in  thy  knowledge  of  my 
sex.  And  thereafter,  all  unknown  to  thee,  I 
caused  myself  to  be  carried  in  a  palanquin,  a 
day  or  two  ago,  where  I  could  listen  to  the 
voice  of  the  king,  and  lo!  it  was  thy  own. 


92  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

So  drop  thy  mask,  for  it  is  only  too  trans- 
parent, since  even  the  blind  can  easily  see 
through  it.  And  tell  me,  what  hast  thou 
done  with  my  husband?  Hast  thou  mur- 
dered the  husband,  as  a  stepping-stone  to  the 
embraces  of  the  wife? 

And  I  said  hastily:  O  admirable  lady,  I 
swear  to  thee,  that  I  am  as  innocent  of  thy 
husband's  disappearance  as  thyself.  Nay,  I 
have  striven  to  discover  him,  without  avail, 
and  his  going  is  a  mystery  I  cannot  fathom. 
Then  she  said:  Thou  art  prevaricating,  and 
if  thou  art  ignorant  of  the  reason  of  his  ab- 
sence, I  am  not.  For  certain  I  am,  that  it  is 
somehow  or  other  connected  with  thy  design 
upon  myself,  with  which  it  coincides  in  the 
time  of  its  occurrence,  though  I  cannot  un- 
derstand it. 

Pippala,  as  she  spoke,  I  wondered  at  her 
sagacity,  for  blind  as  she  was,  not  having  seen 
him  as  I  did  in  the  garden,  she  came  within 
but  a  little  of  the  truth.  And  I  said:  Wat- 
satari,  I  swear  to  thee,  that  thy  husband  has 
made  himself  invisible  absolutely  of  his  own 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  93 

accord,  and  I  am  absolutely  guiltless  of  any 
practices  against  him,  as  indeed  my  kingdom 
suffers  by  his  absence.  Then  she  said :  Partly 
I  believe  thee,  though  not  relying  on  thy  own 
asseveration.  For  thou  hast  forfeited  all 
claim  to  be  believed,  in  anything  whatever. 
But  even  if  thou  hast  not  actually  removed 
him,  thy  action  it  is,  which  has  driven  him 
away.  For  beyond  a  doubt,  he  must  some- 
how or  other  have  penetrated  thy  design,  and 
gone  away  accordingly,  and  O  that  this  may 
be  all.  For  bitterly  do  I  reproach  myself,  for 
having,  in  a  moment  of  curiosity,  lent  a 
colour  to  his  suspicion;  and  even  though  he 
was  not  there,  yet  as  thou  didst  place  thy 
arms  about  my  neck,  on  pretext  of  fastening 
the  necklace,  taking  a  cowardly  advantage  of 
my  impotence  of  sight,  I  felt  myself  a  crim- 
inal. And  when  he  comes  again,  I  will  con- 
fess it,  and  take  his  forgiveness  for  my  fault, 
into  which  I  fell  by  my  own  blindness  and 
thy  abominable  treachery. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  exclaimed 
within  himself:   Ha!   very  wonderful  is  the 


94  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

intuition  of  women  pure  in  soul;  for  she  hit 
upon  the  very  truth.  Ah!  that  I  should  have 
doubted  her,  even  in  a  dream !  And  oblivious 
of  his  muttering,  he  listened  to  the  tale. 


And  the  elephant  said :  Pippala,  I  gazed  at 
her  in  silence,  utterly  unable  to  find  any- 
thing to  say.  And  yet,  alas  for  her!  con- 
victed as  I  was,  by  everything  she  said,  she 
did  but  add  to  the  volume  of  my  passion,  like 
one  that  pours  oil  upon  a  flame.  For  her 
anger  and  her  grief  and  her  repentance,  and 
her  extraordinary  subtlety,  only  made  her 
more  beautiful  than  ever,  and  my  own  evil 
conduct  resembled  the  radiance  of  a  lamp, 
that  was  thrown  back  from  the  opal  of  her 
purity  in  showers  of  incomparable  colour  on 
myself.  And  all  at  once  she  seated  herself 
upon  the  ground.  And  she  said:  Stand  thou 
there  before  me,  and  listen.  For  my  husband 
having  gone  away,  no  matter  how  or  where, 
what  is  it  thy  intention  to  do  now.^^     Here 

95 


96  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

am  I  a  prey  to  thee,  and  utterly  defenceless; 
and  now  there  is  absolutely  nothing  to  pre- 
vent thee  from  completing  thy  design.  Tell 
me,  then,  what  thou  art  proposing  to  do.  And 
she  waited,  while  I  answered  her  absolutely 
nothing,  watching  her  with  intoxication,  and 
lurking  as  it  were  under  the  protection  of  her 
blindness.  And  presently  she  said  again: 
Why  art  thou  silent?  Art  thou  meditating 
in  what  manner  to  appropriate  me?  Save 
thyself  the  trouble,  for  I  myself  will  tell  thee 
of  my  own  accord.  Art  thou  not  a  king,  with 
agents  about  thee  for  any  base  design?  Send 
them  secretly  at  night,  and  steal  me,  and  thy 
business  is  done.  And  she  laughed  again,  and 
said :  Or  didst  thou  think  me  one,  like  others, 
doubtless,  such  as  thou  hast  known,  to  be 
flattered  by  the  vanity  of  having  a  lover  in  the 
king?  Then  why  didst  thou  endeavour  to  hide 
from  me  thy  rank?  Surely  thou  wast  de- 
serted by  thy  reason.  Art  thou  not  aware, 
that  women,  as  a  rule,  flutter  round  a  king 
like  silly  moths  about  a  torch,  ready  to  bum 
up,  not  only  the  wings  of  their  reputation,  but 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  97 

even  their  very  souls  in  the  form  of  the  honour 
of  their  husbands,  so  that  only  they  may  bathe 
for  a  moment  in  his  glitter,  before  shrivelling 
in  its  flame?  Or  didst  thou  trust  in  thy  favour 
as  a  man ;  for  I  have  heard  that  no  man  in  thy 
kingdom  can  compare  with  thee:  not  con- 
sidering that  I  was  blind,  and  unable  either  to 
admire  or  dislike  thee,  even  though  thy  ugli- 
ness were  such  as  to  frighten  me  away?  Aye, 
and  verily  I  think,  that  if  thy  exterior  cor- 
respond to  what  thou  art  within,  thou  art 
surely  very  ugly;  and  I  rejoice,  for  the  first 
time  in  my  life,  I  cannot  see.  And  again  she 
laughed,  like  one  in  a  fever  of  desperation, 
while  all  the  while  I  stood  before  her  silent, 
wroth  with  her  and  with  myself,  yet  attracted 
to  her  rather  than  repelled,  by  everjrthing  she 
said. 

And  all  at  once  she  said:  Say,  Maharaj, 
what  was  thy  object  in  originally  piu-suing 
me?  Come,  tell  me  frankly.  Is  it  not  my 
love  that  thou  wouldst  have?  And  I  ex- 
claimed: Aye!  it  is  thy  love  indeed;  and 
for  it  I  would  cast  my  kingdom  into  the  very 


98  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

bottom  of  a  well.  Then  she  said:  See,  now, 
every  way  thou  hast  acted  like  a  fool.  What ! 
gain  a  woman's  love  by  murdering  her  hus- 
band !  Then  what  a  monster  must  have  been 
the  woman  thou  art  ready  to  adore!  And  I 
said  hastily:  I  am  no  murderer  of  thy  hus- 
band, as  I  told  thee.  And  moreover,  O  thou 
angry  beauty,  not  every  woman  loves  her 
husband ;  and  thine  is  far  too  old  for  thee,  and 
leaves  thee,  moreover,  deserted  and  alone. 
And  instantly,  she  put  up  her  two  hands  to 
stop  her  ears,  exclaiming:  Say  not  a  word 
against  my  husband,  or  I  will  become  deaf  as 
well  as  blind.  Why  didst  thou  not  rather 
endeavour  to  persuade  me,  he  had  deserted  me 
in  favour  of  thyself?  For  had  I  only  been 
the  woman  thou  art  taking  me  to  be,  nothing 
could  have  been  better  to  the  point.  Or 
why  didst  thou  not  try  to  buy  me  from  him? 
Thou  art  rich.  Was  it  that  it  was  only  too 
well  known  to  thee,  he  would  not  sell  me, 
even  for  a  very  mountain  of  pure  gold?  Then 
what  art  thou  but  a  thief,  seeking  imder- 
hand  to  rob  him  of  the  thing  he  would  not  sell? 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  99 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  Hstened,  mur- 
mured to  himself:  Aha!  well  said,  well  done! 
O  irrefutable  wife,  well  might  he  stand  before 
thee,  in  silence  and  abashed.  And  oblivious 
of  his  muttering,  he  listened  to  the  tale. 


XI 


And  the  elephant  said:  O  pippala,  little 
as  she  knew  it,  she  was  but  pleading  against 
herself,  and  losing  her  own  cause,  even  in  the 
winning  of  it,  by  making  herself  ever  more 
and  more  the  mistress  of  my  soul.  And  all 
the  while  she  was  reducing  me  as  it  were  to 
ashes,  by  the  fire  of  her  scorn;  strange!  she  was 
but  raising  out  of  those  very  ashes  other  and 
far  fiercer  fire  than  hers,  so  unutterably  beauti- 
ful was  the  body  and  the  soul  of  my  despiser. 
And  then  all  at  once,  as  if  driven  to  despair  by 
the  consciousness  of  her  own  forlorn  position, 
she  burst  from  laughter  into  tears.  And  she 
wept,  rocking  herself  to  and  fro  before  me  as 
she  sat,  while  I  watched  her  with  a  heart  that 
almost  broke,  in  despair  that  I  should  grieve 
her,  yet  fiercely  determined  to  win  her  for  my 

100 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  loi 

own.  Ha !  very  terrible  is  the  cruelty  of  love, 
piercing  with  marble  heart  the  very  thing  it 
loves  with  swords;  and  very  wonderful  the 
conduct  of  a  lover,  treating  as  if  with  hatred, 
and  pitilessly  torturing,  the  thing  for  which 
he  longs  to  give  his  life.  For  I  would  have 
given  my  kingdom,  only  to  take  her  in  my 
arms  and  soothe  her;  and  yet  my  heart  was 
adamant  to  her  reproaches,  intent  on  nothing 
but  breaking  her  determination,  and  bending 
her  to  my  will.  And  so  I  stood,  waiting  till 
the  tempest  of  her  sorrow  should  abate,  and 
allow  her  to  bring  about  herself  a  change  in  a 
situation,  with  which  I  myself  was  powerless 
to  deal.  And  at  last  she  raised  her  head,  and 
said :  O  King,  thou  seest  that  I  am  absolutely 
at  thy  mercy.  And  hast  thou  then  no  pity 
or  compassion?  Is  it  my  love  that  thou 
aimest  at  possessing?  Then  how  will  it  ad- 
vantage thee  to  take  by  force,  what  has  value 
only  when  it  is  given  of  its  own  accord?  Or 
what  can  be  the  value  of  a  body,  dead  and 
without  a  soul?  Wilt  thou  love  a  corpse,  or 
will  a  corpse  relove  thee?     Callest  thou  love, 


102  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

such  a  union  with  the  dead?     I  tell  thee,  such 
love  would  turn  to  hatred  in  a  day. 

And  I  exclaimed:  Ah!  Watsatari;  say  not, 
say  not,  thou  canst  not  love  me;  and  speak 
not  of  thyself  as  dead,  who  art  my  life,  and  as  it 
were,  the  very  soul  and  self  of  me.  Nay,  rather 
is  it  I,  who  am  altogether  dead,  without  thee. 
Aye!  all  these  years  I  have  been  dead,  having 
only  now  at  last  begun  to  live,  since  first  I 
climbed  upon  the  wall,  to  see  my  life  at  last,  in 
thee  below.  Alas!  Watsatari,  and  dost  thou 
talk  of  pity  or  compassion,  that  hast  thy- 
self no  grain  of  either  in  that  heart  of  thine, 
that,  as  I  think,  is  harder  than  a  stone?  Or 
being  blind  thyself,  dost  thou  imagine  all 
others  also  blind?  And  O  that  I  myself  were 
blind  indeed,  and  could  not  see  thee,  for  as  it 
is,  the  sight  of  thee  is  poison  more  fell  than  any 
kdlakuta/  since  that  at  least  was  drinkable, 
but  thy  blue  bewildering  beauty  is  fatal  even 
at  a  distance,  showing  the  traveller  a  mock- 


^  The  poison  that  Shiwa  drank  to  save  the  world,  which  was 
blue.  In  this  passage,  there  is  an  elaborate  play  on  beauty  and 
salt,  which  are  denoted  by  the  same  word. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  103 

ing  picture  in  the  desert,  only  to  whet  his 
thirst,  without  allowing  him  to  drink  at 
all.  Aye!  surely  thou  art  an  incarnation  of 
illusion,  more  bitter  even  than  the  ocean  with 
its  brine;  for  thou  art  salt  not  only  to  the 
taste  but  to  the  sight.  And  why,  then,  didst 
thou  allure  me  with  the  mystery  and  depth 
of  thy  still  unfathomable  eyes,  or  lull  my 
senses  and  dash  my  reason  from  its  rock  by 
the  surge  of  the  wave  that  throbs  in  the  motion 
of  thy  tantalising  breast,  only  to  drive  me 
from  thee  by  menaces  of  death?  Did  the 
Creator  mould  thee  to  such  incomparable 
form,  or  bestow  on  every  movement  of  thy 
body  so  delicate  and  characteristically  fem- 
inine a  grace,  only  for  my  destruction?  Did 
he  fill  me  with  passionate  longing  for  exactly 
such  a  perfect  model  of  the  soft  and  seductive 
sweetness  of  a  woman  as  thyself,  only  to  show 
me  the  reality  in  derision,  and  say  to  me  as 
soon  as  I  had  found  it,  Forget  it,  and  go  away, 
and  leave  it  to  another?  Nay,  but  I  will  not 
go  away,  and  I  tell  thee,  that  in  vain  dost 
thou   endeavour   to   deprive   me   of  thyself. 


I04  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

Rather  will  I  bind  thee  to  myself,  making  thee 
a  part  of  me,  as  is  Gauri  of  Maheshwara,  and 
thou  shalt  be  the  complement  and  the  other 
half  of  me,  and  shrine  me  in  thy  heart  and 
thee  in  mine. 

And  she  said:  Nay,  but  it  is  impossible, 
for  my  husband  is  between ;  and  it  is  not  thou, 
but  he,  who  is  the  idol  and  the  dweller  in  my 
shrine. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  said  softly 
to  himself:  Out,  out  upon  the  husband  that 
could  doubt  her,  even  in  a  dream!  And 
oblivious  of  his  muttering,  he  listened  on,  for 
the  remainder  of  the  tale. 


XII 

And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  when  she 
spoke,  I  uttered  a  cry.  And  I  exclaimed: 
Ha!  the  husband!  O  alas!  I  had  forgotten 
him.  Then  she  said  quietly:  But  I  had  not. 
And  I  cried:  O  alas!  alas!  Out,  out  upon 
this  husband,  for  he  was  bom  only  for  my 
ruin  and  despair.  Now,  like  a  cloud  of 
pitchy  black,  he  stands  between  my  soul,  and 
the  digit  of  the  moon  that  I  adore.  Aye! 
but  for  him,  I  might  be  hanging  like  a  moon- 
stone bathed  in  the  nectar  camphor  of  its 
beams.  O  why  did  fate  suffer  him  to  come 
between  us!  why  did  I  not  meet  thee  first, 
before  he  ever  saw  thee?  Ha!  what  would  it 
cost  the  Creator  to  obliterate  a  single  hus- 
band, and  strike  him  from  the  roll  of  entities, 

making  him  absolutely  nothing  and  a  thing 

105 


io6  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

that  has  never  been,  thinner  than  the  memory 
of  a  forgotten  dream?  Alas!  I  am  cheated  by 
the  Creator  and  this  husband,  and  coming 
just  too  late,  I  am  robbed  of  the  very  fruit  of 
this  untimely  birth.  And  after  all,  what  is 
this  husband?  Is  he  not  a  husband  who  goes 
away  and  leaves  thee,  like  a  flower  dropped 
negligently  upon  the  road,  and  have  I  not 
found  thee,  made  ownerless  by  his  absence, 
and  picked  thee  up,  to  wear  thee  in  my  hair? 
Can  he  be  thy  owner,  of  whom  it  is  not  even 
certain  that  he  lives?  Aye!  doubtless  he  is 
dead,  and  thou  hast  not  any  longer  the  pre- 
text of  a  husband,  to  bar  thee  from  my  claim. 
And  instantly  she  said :  Then,  if  he  is  really 
dead,  it  is  my  duty  to  follow  him  through  the 
fire,  which,  could  I  only  learn  his  death  with 
certainty,  I  would  do  without  delay.  And  I 
exclaimed:  Nay,  nay,  dare  not  to  dream  of 
fire,  for  how  knowest  thou  he  is  dead?  Be- 
yond a  doubt,  he  is  not  dead,  but  only  hid- 
den; and  wouldst  thou  dream  of  such  criminal 
impiety  as  to  take  it  on  thyself  to  precede 
him  into  the  other  world  ?     I  tell  thee,  it  is 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  107 

thy  duty  to  await  him.  And  she  said :  Then 
if  he  is  not  dead,  I  am  no  widow,  but  his  wife. 

And  I  exclaimed  with  tears:  Alas!  dead 
or  alive,  he  blocks  the  way,  and  I  am  lost. 
But  what  then,  if  he  never  should  return? 
What  if  year  follows  year,  and  still  he  chooses 
to  be  absent,  while  all  the  time  the  lotus  of 
thy  beauty  fades,  and  envious  wrinkles  crawl 
slowly,  one  by  one,  to  feed  like  worms  on  thy 
soft  delicious  skin,  and  occupy  the  comer 
beneath  thy  little  ear,  turning  thy  dark 
tresses  white,  as  if  with  fear  of  the  shadow  of 
approaching  age  and  death  ?  Am  I  to  stand 
idly  by,  like  a  spectator,  and  watch  the  river 
of  my  happiness  flow  by  me,  in  the  form  of  thy 
decaying  charm?  And  she  said  in  a  low 
voice :  Each  night  and  day  I  will  expect  him, 
and  when  he  comes,  let  it  be  when  it  may,  he 
shall  never  catch  me  unprepared,  but  find 
me  waiting,  sad  by  reason  of  his  absence,  and 
joyous  like  a  city  hung  with  banners  to  re- 
ceive its  lord,  at  the  moment  of  his  return. 

And  I  gazed  at  her  for  a  little,  poised  as  it 
were  between  affection  and  despair;  for  as  she 


io8  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

spoke,  the  colour  rose  and  stood  upon  her 
cheek,  and  her  Hp  trembled,  and  her  steady 
eyes  seemed  to  gaze  into  the  distance,  seeing 
not  me,  but  that  absent  husband :  and  I  knew 
that  as  she  said,  so  would  she  do.  And  I 
wrung  my  hands,  and  wept  for  sorrow.  And 
I  exclaimed:  Ha!  it  is  unjust,  and  I  am  the 
plaything  of  a  destiny  that  I  fastened  on  my- 
self by  sins  committed  in  a  former  birth,  in  the 
form  of  this  dark  shadow  of  a  husband,  who 
is  present  even  in  his  absence,  though  as  it 
seems,  time  and  space  have  swallowed  him,  as 
the  ocean  swallows  up  a  little  stone,  dropped 
from  the  feather  of  a  passing  swan  into  the 
very  middle  of  the  sea.  And  know,  O  pip- 
pala,  that  it  was  exactly  as  I  said.  For 
that  husband  of  hers  returned  no  more,  but 
vanished,  and  neither  I  nor  any  other  ever 
saw  him  more,  or  knew  where  he  had  gone. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  said  within 
himself:  Ha!  little  does  this  elephant  imagine 
who  it  is,  that  sits  and  listens  to  him  now. 
And  oblivious  of  his  muttering,  he  listened  on, 
eager  for  the  remainder  of  the  tale. 


XIII 

And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  as  I  stood 
before  her,  like  an  incarnation  of  the  struggle 
between  adoration  and  dismay,  she  spoke  and 
said:  O  King  Ruru,  thou  seest  it  is  useless. 
Cease,  then,  thy  pleading  and  persuasion, 
and  go  away;  for  all  that  thou  canst  urge  is 
wasted  breath,  and  thou  art  like  one  striving 
by  reiterated  throwing  to  fix  a  stone  in  air, 
which  notwithstanding  returns  in  spite  of 
thee  invariably  to  the  ground — as  does  my 
heart  to  the  memory  of  its  lord. 

And  I  said:  Ha!  now  I  see,  I  have  of- 
fended the  deity  of  Love,  and  the  Lord  of 
Obstacles  is  angry.  For  the  one  has  turned 
his  back  on  me,  and  the  other  has  cast  before 
me  this  moimtain  of  an  obstacle,  thy  husband, 

throwing  even  at  a  distance  a  blighting  shadow 

109 


no  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

in  the  form  of  reminiscence,  by  which  I  am 
buried  in  blackness  and  hidden  from  thy 
heart.  O  that  thy  eyes  could  see  me,  for 
then  it  might  be  that  through  them  I  might 
effect  an  entrance;  but  alas!  the  door  to  thee 
is  shut.  Or  had  I  only  been  blind  as  well  as 
thou,  thou  never  couldst  have  entered  mine. 
"WTiat!  is  it  right  of  thee  to  occupy  my  heart, 
and  yet  bar  me  from  thy  own?  And  she 
said:  My  heart  is  full,  and  poor,  and  narrow, 
and  far  too  small  for  thee,  containing  as  it 
does  room  for  only  one,  and  not  like  thine, 
royal,  and  a  palace,  with  chambers  for  in- 
numerable guests. 

And  I  said,  with  emotion:  Ah!  Watsatari, 
thy  words  are  very  sharp,  and  like  a  dagger  in 
my  heart;  and  now  I  see,  that  every  man  is 
punished  by  himself,  being  followed  to  eternity 
by  actions  of  his  own,  black  dogs,  from  which 
in  vain  he  will  endeavour  to  escape.  Aye! 
thou  art  right,  I  turned  my  heart  into  a 
caravanserai,  to  which  I  welcomed  every 
worthless  guest;  but  now  I  swear  to  thee,  the 
very  sight  of  thee  has  cleansed  it  like  a  pure 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  iii 

river,  which,  ousting  everjrthing,  has  left 
there  nothing,  but  the  crystal  of  itself.  Then 
she  said:  O  King,  they  say  of  thee  in  the 
bazaar,  that  thou  wast  bent  like  a  golden  bar 
from  straight  to  crooked,  by  the  evil  behaviour 
of  thy  queen.  And  is  it  true.'*  And  I  said, 
eagerly:  Aye!  she  it  was  that  turned  me,  as 
thou  say  est,  aside,  into  the  jungle  of  de- 
pravity. And  instantly  she  said,  quietly: 
What!  then  art  thou  not  ashamed?  For 
what  art  thou  doing  now,  but  striving  to 
make  me  such  another  as  thy  queen,  whom, 
according  to  thyself,  thou  blamest,  as  the 
cause  of  thy  unhappiness?  Thou  art  thyself 
the  judge.  And  should  I  listen  to  thee,  thou 
tellest  me  beforehand,  I  should  be  utterly 
worthless  in  thy  eyes,  and  a  discredit  to  my- 
self, and  my  husband,  and  my  sex.  For  the 
three  worlds  shudder  at  the  spectacle  of  a 
woman  that  is  traitor  to  her  lord.  Go  then 
away  very  quickly,  and  forget  that  thou  hast 
ever  seen  my  face. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  exclaimed 
in  ecstasy  to  himself:    Ha!  good  wife  and 


112  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

subtle  argument.  Now  she  has  slain  him, 
as  it  were,  with  his  very  own  sword.  And 
utterly  oblivious  of  his  muttering,  he  listened 
eagerly  for  the  remainder  of  the  tale. 


XIV 

And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  as  I  gazed 
at  her,  I  almost  shrank  before  her  tranquil 
eyes,  half  believing  she  could  see  me,  so  utterly- 
had  she  crushed  me  by  her  unanswerable 
words.  And  yet,  the  less  I  could  reply,  the 
more  intense  became  my  admiration  of  her- 
self, and  the  stronger  my  unwillingness  to 
obey  her,  and  go  away  and  leave  her.  And 
as  if  her  beauty  was  not  enough,  her  very 
virtue  came  to  reinforce  it,  making  her  at- 
traction a  hundred  times  more  powerful  than 
ever.  O  pippala,  what  is  this  mystery  of 
love,  and  who  is  there  who  can  sound  it? 
For  what  was  I  doing,  but  endeavouring  to 
persuade  her?  and  yet,  had  she  been  per- 
suaded, I  should  actually  have  grieved  at  my 
success;  as  I  actually  rejoiced  at  her  refusal, 

"3 


114  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

loving  her  the  better,  the  less  she  could  be 
persuaded  to  love  me.  And  I  exclaimed,  as  if 
in  defiance  of  despair:  No  matter,  O  thou 
incomparable  beauty,  what  I  was,  for  I  am 
changed,  and  by  thee,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye.  And  what  does  it  matter  what  they  say 
in  the  bazaar,  for  the  world  is  but  a  straw  to 
me,  in  comparison  with  thee?  See,  I  can- 
not live  without  thee,  and  I  will  carry  thee 
away,  to  a  distance  from  the  world,  and  be 
to  thee  infinitely  more  than  a  thousand  hus- 
bands such  as  thine.  For  he  neglected  thee, 
and  left  thee  to  thyself,  not  valuing  his  pearl. 
But  I  will  be  thy  other  self;  see,  thou  art 
blind,  but  I  will  be  thy  eyes,  and  by  means  of 
me,  thou  shall  utterly  forget  thy  want  of 
sight.  And  if  thou  wilt,  I  will  take  thee  clean 
away,  turning  my  back  upon  my  kingdom 
and  the  world,  like  yonder  necklace  which  I 
have  left  for  thy  sake  lying  unregarded  in  the 
grass,  and  asking  of  thee  in  return  nothing 
but  thyself.  Dost  thou  not  know,  what  fate 
awaits  thee  here?  Canst  thou  endure  to  live, 
deserted  by  thy  husband,  who  is  either  dead 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  115 

or  gone,  the  object  of  the  scorn  and  derision 
and  hard  usage  of  the  world,  a  very  target  for 
the  arrows  of  contempt?^  What  then  wilt 
thou  resemble  but  a  blue  delicious  lotus, 
trampled  in  the  mire  of  a  city  street  by  the 
foot  of  every  passer-by;  a  lotus,  whose  ap- 
propriate position  is  either  the  pool  in  the 
silence  of  the  forest,  or  the  head  of  a  king? 
But  come  with  me,  O  lotus,  and  thou  shalt 
gain  at  one  stroke  both  the  forest  and  the 
king.  For  here  am  I,  a  king,  and  beside  us  is 
the  forest,  stretching  like  the  ocean  to  the 
south,  whose  farther  shore  no  hunter  ever 
sees.  And  far  away  within  it,  I  will  build  thee 
a  marble  palace  that  shall  laugh  at  even 
Alaka,  set  like  a  pearl  in  the  middle  of  an 
emerald  of  gardens,  full  of  pools  of  golden 
lotuses,  whose  roots  are  nibbled  by  a  multi- 
tude of  silver  swans.  And  there  by  day  thou 
shalt  wander  led  by  me,  or  lie  and  dream, 
fanned  by  breezes  heavy  with    the   sandal 

*  The  position  of  the  Hindoo  widow  was  very  different  from 
that  of  other  widows:  her  misfortune  was  counted  to  her  as  a 
crime,  and  her  life  a  long-drawn-out  martyrdom,  from  which 
perhaps  the  fire  would  be  release. 


ii6  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

straight  from  Malaya,  on  marble  slabs  cooled 
by  the  spray  tossed  from  the  crystal  tanks  by 
waterfalls  whose  music  shall  pour  sleep  into 
thy  ear,  leaving  thee  wakeful  at  midnight  to 
listen  and  tremble  as  I  guide  thee  along  the 
palace-top  at  the  cry  of  the  wild  animals 
roaming  at  a  distance  in  the  wood,  till  at 
last  thou  fall  to  dreaming  in  my  arms,  lulled 
by  the  slow  and  melancholy  weeping  of  the 
moonstones  oozing  as  they  swing  to  and  fro 
slowly  in  the  moonlight,  as  if  keeping  time  to 
the  silent  dance  of  their  own  long  shadows  on 
the  floor.  And  what  will  it  matter  to  thee  or 
me  what  they  say  in  the  bazaar,  living  to- 
gether like  Siddhas  in  the  moon,  to  whom  this 
babble  of  busybodies  in  the  cities  of  this  de- 
spicable earth  sounds  like  the  recollection  of 
the  murmur  of  a  far-off  ocean  in  the  dream  of 
a  half -remembered  birth?  And  all  the  while 
I  will  be  thy  servant  and  the  eyes  of  thee,  and 
my  voice  shall  paint  to  thee  pictures  of  the 
world  that  shall  surround  thee,  and  be  thy 
one  interpreter,  till  learning  its  language,  thy 
soul  shall  even  forget  to  remember  it  was 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  117 

blind.  And  I  will  utterly  efface  thy  recol- 
lection of  this  husband,  who  is  a  husband  in 
nothing  but  the  name,  since  he  leaves  thee 
deserted  and  alone,  to  be  afflicted;  and  in- 
stead of  him  I  will  be  thy  husband,  and  thy 
other  half  and  helper,  and  thy  soother  and  thy 
lover  and  the  very  eyes  and  soul  of  thee. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  said  with 
anxiety  to  himself:  Ha!  now  this  liar  of  a 
king  is  very  cunning,  and  beyond  a  doubt, 
many  a  woman  would  have  found  it  hard  to 
resist  the  flattery  of  his  tongue.  And  ob- 
livious of  his  muttering,  he  listened  eagerly 
for  the  remainder  of  the  tale. 


XV 


And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  as  I  ended, 

I  stepped  forward,  and  I  took  her,  very  gently, 

by  the  hand.     And  then,  lo!  the  very  moment 

that   I   touched    it,    she   started.     And   she 

leaped  back,  like  one  that  has  suddenly  put 

his  hand  into  the  flame  of  a  fire,  with  a  cry. 

And  as  I  watched  her,  she  stood  for  a  single 

instant,  like  one  balanced  on  the  very  verge  of 

flying,  or  sobbing,  or  falling  to  the  ground, 

for  she  swayed  on  her  little  feet,  and  her  body 

shook  all  over,  like  a  tree  whose  leaves  are 

stirred  by  a  sudden  wind.    And  her  great 

breast  struggled  in  violent  agitation,   as  if 

striving  to  leap  from  its  bodice  in  sheer  fright. 

And   then   in   a   moment,    all   at   once   she 

changed,  becoming  still,  as  though  she  were 

an  image,  carved  in  stone,  upon  a  temple 

118 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  119 

wall.  Only  her  bosom  went  on  heaving  like 
the  sea,  as  if  she  could  not  breathe.  And 
after  a  while  she  said,  very  slowly:  My 
blindness  makes  my  battle  hard,  for  I  cannot 
either  see  my  danger  coming,  or  escape  it 
by  flying  when  it  comes.  And  now,  well  I 
discern  the  terrible  consequences  of  sins  com- 
mitted in  a  former  birth,  for  now  I  am  without 
resource,  resembling  one  that  walks  in  inky 
darkness,  whose  every  step  may  plunge  the 
point  of  a  sword  into  his  heart.  And  yet 
that  very  blindness  which  puts  me  in  thy 
power  contains  the  weapon  to  defeat  thee; 
for  within  it  I  am  shut  from  thee  as  in  an  im- 
penetrable fortress,  around  which  thou  art 
wandering  in  vain.  For  the  Creator  has 
not  left  even  the  blind  without  their  proper 
refuge,  and  has  bestowed  upon  them  inner 
eyes,  as  if  to  balance  the  want  of  those  with- 
out; and  being  deprived  by  their  infirmity  of 
all  that  world  which  others  see,  they  fall  back 
upon  the  world  within,  composed  of  memory 
and  meditation,  and  patience  and  emotion, 
and  fidelity  and  hope.    And  as  I  listen  to  thy 


120  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

words,  falling  on  my  ear  out  of  the  visible  I 
cannot  see,  tempting  me,  and  seeking  as  it 
were  to  melt  my  resolution  by  a  fiery  rain, 
I  look  into  my  soul,  and  I  see  at  a  distance,  in 
its  darkness,  a  solitary  star  in  the  form  of  my 
husband,  sending  me  as  it  were  a  ray  of  sup- 
port and  consolation,  to  keep  me  from  sink- 
ing in  the  waves  of  the  ocean  of  despair.  And 
now  I  tell  thee,  all  thy  honied  words  are 
worthless,  and  like  arrows,  they  fall  back 
blunted  and  shattered  on  the  rock  on  which  I 
lean,  in  the  form  of  his  memory,  and  beating 
on  my  head  like  particles  of  snow  they  do  but 
add  to  the  mound  of  cold  resistance  which  they 
aim  at  removing  by  their  ineffectual  storm. 
And  though  I  know  not  where  he  is,  nor  even 
if  he  will  return,  yet  when  he  does  he  shall  find 
his  honour  safe,  and  my  soul  like  a  temple 
shall  preserve  within  its  shrine  the  candle  that 
he  lit,  whose  steady  flame  not  all  the  winds 
of  flattery  and  temptation  blown  from  thine 
or  any  other  mouth  shall  ever  make  extinct,  or 
even  cause  to  flicker  for  an  instant,  even  in  a 
dream.    And  like  Draupadi,  or  Damayanti, 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  121 

or  Sita,  or  Sawitri,  I  shall  meet  my  husband, 
either  in  this  birth  or  another,  so,  as  that 
neither  he  nor  I  will  be  ashamed.  And  well 
though  I  know  that  I  am  bodily  at  thy  mercy 
and  in  thy  power,  so  that  coming  thyself  or 
sending  others,  thou  canst  carry  me  by  vio- 
lence away,  as  I  think  will  be  the  case,  yet 
shall  even  that  avail  thee  nothing.  For  the 
body  thou  shall  ravish,  as  I  told  thee,  will  be 
dead,  and  its  soul  will  be  away.  For  though 
it  is  my  duty  not  to  quit  it,  for  my  husband 
has  left  me,  as  it  were,  as  a  deposit  in  my  own 
hands  to  be  guarded  for  himself,  yet  I  shall 
make  no  effort  to  conceal  it  from  thee  like  a 
coward;  it  is  here  for  thee  to  steal.  Take,  if 
thou  wilt,  a  thing  that  can  offer  no  resist- 
ance; thou  wilt  gain  absolutely  nothing  but 
dishonour  for  thyself,  loving  what  will  not 
love  thee,  embracing  what  will  not  embrace 
thee,  doomed  to  remain  everlastingly  out- 
side, and  baulked  of  that  treasure  of  the  heart 
within,  like  a  robber  with  an  adamantine  cas- 
ket to  which  he  has  no  key,  and  which,  defy- 
ing all  his  efforts  to  invade  it,  leaves  him  with 


122  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

nothing  to  reward  him  but  his  crime.  Aye! 
try,  and  thou  shalt  find,  that  with  nothing  to 
defend  it,  armed  only  with  a  memory,  the 
heart  of  a  woman  is  stronger  than  all  the 
power  of  a  king.  Aye!  bring,  if  thou  wilt, 
the  ocean,  and  the  wind,  and  the  darkness  to 
assist  thee,  and  thou  shalt  find  that  the  little 
tongue  of  that  flame  which  is  fed  on  the  oil 
of  reminiscence  will  utterly  refuse  to  be  ex- 
tinguished by  them  all. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  mur- 
mured softly  to  himself:  Ah!  noble  wife,  ah! 
Watsatarl,  thou  hast  annihilated  this  robber 
of  a  king.  And  utterly  oblivious  of  his  mut- 
tering, he  listened,  with  a  heart  on  fire,  for 
the  remainder  of  the  tale. 


XVI 

And  the  elephant  said:  Ha!  pippala,  as 
she  ended,  I  stood  confounded,  hke  a  picture 
on  a  wall,  gazing  at  her  in  utter  oblivion  of 
everything  but  herself,  drunk  with  amazement 
and  adoration.  For  as  she  spoke,  she  seemed 
to  grow,  and  become  larger  than  herself;  and 
her  words  poured  like  a  stream  of  liquid  fire 
shot  from  the  fountain  of  her  soul,  and  my 
own  soul  seemed  as  it  were  to  shrink  and  grow 
small  before  her,  like  a  thing  shrivelled  in  a 
flame.  And  her  strange  calm  eyes  shone  till 
I  shuddered  as  I  saw  them,  and  I  felt  like 
the  demon  whom  Gauri  was  about  to  annihi- 
late for  ever,  in  her  form.  And  I  could  have 
fallen  down  and  worshipped  her  in  ecstasy, 
and  yet  for  very  shame  I  dared  not  stir.    And 

so  I  stood  a  while,  as  if  in  stupor,  and  then 

123 


124  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

very  quietly  I  crept  away,  and  climbing  over 
the  wall,  returned  privately  to  my  palace,  like 
a  thief  ashamed.  And  there,  throwing  my- 
self upon  my  bed,  I  lay  silent,  unconscious 
of  the  passage  of  time,  gazing  as  it  were  into 
darkness,  and  seeing  nothing  but  the  image  of 
Watsatari,  standing  still  before  me,  and  look- 
ing at  me  fixedly,  with  eyes  from  which  I 
strove  to  hide  myself  in  vain. 

And  all  at  once,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  I 
started  up  shouting:  Watsatari!  Watsatari! 
And  I  raved  with  words  devoid  of  mean- 
ing, feeling  nothing  but  passionate  desire  for 
herself  and  her  beauty,  and  hatred  of  her 
husband,  and  loathing  for  myself.  And  I  ex- 
claimed: Haha!  but  for  this  husband,  I 
might  have  attained  to  the  fruit  of  my  birth, 
which  has  vanished  like  a  dream. 

And  as  it  happened,  my  wita  overheard  me, 
for  as  a  rule  he  never  left  me,  and  he  was  sit- 
ting by  my  side,  watching  me,  like  a  bird  of 
evil  omen,  with  his  only  eye;  for  he  had  lost 
the  other  by  a  blow  from  a  boon  companion  in 
a  drunken  brawl.    And  all  at  once  he  said: 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  125 

Maharaj,  doubtless  thou  art  troubled  in  soul 
by  reason  of  some  love  affair;  and  now,  sor- 
row shared  with  a  friend  is  lightened  of  more 
than  half  its  burden.  Moreover,  it  may  be  I 
could  help  thee,  for  in  every  such  case,  a  by- 
stander is  a  better  judge.  So  in  my  distress, 
unable  to  refrain,  I  told  him  the  whole  story. 
And  when  I  made  an  end,  the  wita  said: 
Maharaj,  hadst  thou  kept  this  to  thyself,  thou 
wouldst  not  have  been  well  advised;  as  I 
shall  show  thee.  For  thy  opinion  is,  that 
the  husband  is  thy  difficulty,  and  the  obstacle 
in  this  affair.  And  I  said:  Aye!  so  he  is, 
beyond  a  doubt;  and  an  obstacle  utterly  be- 
yond removal.  Then  said  the  wita:  Maharaj, 
thou  art  mistaken  altogether.  For  the  hus- 
band in  this  case  is  not  an  obstacle  at  all,  for 
he  has  disappeared,  as  though  on  purpose  to 
oblige  thee,  and  leave  thy  way  open.  But 
that  which  stands  in  thy  way,  exactly  as 
she  said  herself,  is  nothing  but  his  memory.^ 
For  if  she  could  forget  him,  she  would  have 

'  The  reader  should  remember  that  here,  as  often,  memory  and 
love,  are  identical. 


126  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

absolutely  nothing  to  oppose  to  thee  at  all. 
And  I  exclaimed:  Aye!  indeed!  if  she  could 
forget  him.  Then  said  that  crafty  wita: 
Did  I  not  say  that  my  assistance  would  avail 
thee?  For  there  is  absolutely  no  difficulty  in 
this  at  all.  For  I  have  a  friend,  who  has 
gone  to  the  very  farther  shore  of  the  Ayur- 
weda, '  and  possesses  skill  sufficient  to  raise  the 
very  dead  to  life.  And  now  I  will  consult  him, 
and  tell  him  only  so  much  as  is  necessary  to 
the  business  in  hand,  and  get  from  him  a  drug 
to  annihilate  the  memory;  and  what  can  be 
more  easy  than  for  such  a  very  Lord  of  Herbs* 
to  produce  oblivion  and  forgetfulness,  by 
the  means  of  a  drug?  For  if  she  could  only 
be  induced  to  lose,  somehow  or  other,  all 
recollection  of  her  husband,  remaining  in 
every  other  point  the  same,  thy  object  is 
attained,  and  stealing  into  her  soul,  thou 
couldst  very  easily  fill  it  with  thy  image,  being 
vacant  of  his  own. 

And  instantly  I  uttered  a  cry,  and  falling 

^  The  science  of  medicine. 

»A  common  epithet  of  the  moon. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  127 

on  my  wita,  embraced  him,  intoxicated  with 
delight,  exclaiming:  Ha!  most  admirable  of 
all  witas,  if  thou  canst  actually  do  as  thou  hast 
said,  I  will  weigh  myself  in  gold,  for  thy  re- 
ward. And  like  thy  own  physician,  thou 
hast  as  it  were  raised  me  from  the  dead. 
And  now  let  us  begin  and  set  to  work,  with- 
out losing  any  time.  And  in  my  agitation  I 
could  hardly  endure  to  wait  for  the  return  of 
day.  Then  very  early  in  the  morning  the 
wita  went  to  his  physician  and  returned,  hold- 
ing in  his  hands  a  little  phial.  And  he  said: 
Maharaj,  I  have  the  cure  for  every  recollec- 
tion in  this  glass.  For  as  he  gave  it  me,  he 
said:  Whoever  swallows  this  will  fall  asleep, 
to  lose  on  reawakening  every  vestige  of  re- 
collection of  what  happened  in  his  life  before. 
So  nothing  now  remains,  except  the  drinking. 
And  to  drink,  she  m.ust  be  here.  And  if 
thou  wilt,  I  will  take  assistance,  and  go  and 
bring  her,  and  put  her  in  thy  hands  myself. 
And  if  thy  beauty  will  not  come,  what  matter.? 
A  little  violence  will  do  no  harm,  since  all  will 
be  forgotten  when  she  wakes. 


128  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

And  then,  he  fixed  on  me  his  eye,  as  if 
ironically,  and  I  shuddered  as  I  saw  it,  saying 
to  me  as  it  were  significantly:  Thou  and  I. 
And  I  looked  at  him  with  horror,  saying  to 
myself:  What!  shall  I  share  her  with  this 
wita,  and  shall  the  lotus  of  her  body  be  de- 
filed by  his  handling,  even  in  a  dream?  And 
I  leaped  at  him  and  struck  him  to  the  ground, 
exclaiming  furiously:  Dog  of  a  wita,  dost 
thou  dare?  Is  it  for  such  a  thing  as  thou  art 
to  lay  hands  on  her,  or  shall  she  be  profaned 
by  the  grasp  of  such  a  monster  as  thyself? 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  muttered 
to  himself  in  wrath:  Ha!  thou  that  callest 
others  monsters,  what  of  thyself?  what  de- 
filement was  there  in  the  touch  of  thy  filthy 
wita,  that  was  not  doubled  by  the  profanation 
in  thy  own?  And  all  oblivious  of  his  mut- 
tering, he  listened  with  anxiety  for  the  con- 
clusion of  the  tale. 


XVII 

And  the  elephant  said:  Pippala,  as  the 
wita  rose,  I  said  to  him  in  wrath:  I  only  will 
go  to  fetch  her,  nor  shall  any  finger  touch  her 
but  my  own.  And  as  for  thee,  remain  be- 
hind, and  await  me  with  thy  phial  till  I  come. 
Then  said  the  wita:  As  the  Mahardj  chooses. 
And  he  bowed  before  me  like  a  slave,  and 
listened  in  silence  while  I  made  my  prepara- 
tions, thinking  no  more  of  him,  and  utterly 
forgetful  of  the  injuries  he  had  suffered  at  my 
hands.  But  if  I  forgot  them,  so  did  not  he. 
Ha!  wonderful  is  the  blindness  of  kings  and 
lovers  who,  intoxicated  with  passionate  desire, 
place  with  open  eyes  weapons  in  the  hands  of 
infuriated  enemies,  who  only  await  an  op- 
portunity to  stab  them  to  the  heart. 

And  then,   0  pippala,   in  the  evening,   I 
9  129 


130  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

mounted  my  horse,  and  went,  with  a  chosen 
band  of  confidential  servants,  and  a  litter, 
secretly  to  the  garden.  And  I  rode  very 
slowly,  thinking  how  I  should  induce  her  to 
come  away,  unwilling  to  use  force.  And  I 
said  to  myself,  with  hesitation:  But  if  she 
will  not  come,  as  only  too  much  I  fear,  what 
then?  Must  I  not  have  recourse  to  violence? 
And  after  all,  was  not  my  wita  right?  What 
matter  a  little  violence,  to  be  utterly  for- 
gotten as  soon  as  she  awakes?  Moreover, 
being  blind,  how  can  she  tell  who  seizes  her, 
seeing  that  she  knows  me  by  nothing  but 
my  voice?  And  yet  I  could  not  bring  my- 
self to  think  of  taking  her  away  by  force, 
striving  to  discover  some  other  way,  and  say- 
ing to  myself:  Could  I  but  discover  some- 
thing, to  make  her  come  away  with  me  of  her 
own  accord. 

And  then,  all  at  once,  I  stopped  short.  And 
I  exclaimed:  Ha!  I  have  it.  Surely  this  will 
bring  her;  and  now,  the  business  is  done. 

And  I  set  spurs  to  my  horse,  and  followed  by 
my  train,  I  quickly  reached  the  garden,  and 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  131 

leaving  them  to  wait  below,  I  climbed  the 
wall  alone,  and  looked,  and  lo!  there  she  stood 
again,  listening,  and  looking  as  it  were  to- 
wards me,  exactly  as  she  did  at  first 

And  then,  strange!  the  instant  that  I  saw 
her,  I  stopped,  looking  down  at  her  from 
the  wall,  and  such  a  sadness  mingled  with 
the  ecstasy  of  my  devotion  as  I  watched  her, 
that  the  tears  rose  up  into  my  eyes.  And  I 
said  to  myself:  Let  me  look  at  her  well,  for 
just  a  little  while,  for  this  is  the  very  last 
time  I  shall  see  her  from  the  wall.  Ha!  pip- 
pala,  little  did  I  dream  that  I  was  looking  at 
her,  never  again  to  see  her  standing,  either 
from  the  wall  or  any  other  place  whatever  in 
the  world.  And  her  dress,  as  she  had  turned 
round  towards  the  wall,  startled  by  the  sound 
of  my  approach,  was  twined  as  if  with  af- 
fection, like  a  creeper,  closely  round  her 
ankles,  and  had  wrapped  itself  around  her 
feet,  as  if  to  hinder  them  from  moving  and  root 
her  in  the  ground,  resembling  a  pedestal,  out 
of  which,  like  a  statue  of  herself,  her  beautiful 
undulating  body  rose  up  into  the  air,  like  the 


132  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

feminine  incarnation  of  a  full-blown  and  heavy- 
flower,  only  waiting  for  a  breeze  to  sway  gently 
on  its  slender  stalk.  And  once  more  I 
trembled  as  I  gazed  at  the  dead  still  colour  of 
her  tranquil  unintimidated  eyes,  that  seemed 
as  it  were  to  say  to  me,  Coward,  couldst  thou 
have  mustered  courage  to  lay  rude  hands  on 
such  a  lovely  lotus  as  myself,  growing  in  a 
pool  which  is  not  thine? 

And  suddenly,  I  flung  myself  into  the  gar- 
den, and  went  hastily  towards  her.  And  I 
exclaimed:  Watsatari,  thy  husband  is  re- 
turned, for  I  have  found  him,  and  now  I 
have  him  in  my  palace,  and  his  life  is  in  my 
hands,  and  thine.  And  now  I  have  come 
myself,  with  an  escort,  to  bring  thee  to  him; 
so  that  in  thy  presence  I  may  bargain  with 
him  for  thee,  and  buy  thee,  at  any  price  that 
he  shall  name.  Didst  thou  not  say,  I  was  a 
robber,  endeavouring  to  steal  the  thing  I 
could  not  buy?  And  now,  then,  we  shall  see 
whether  he  will  sell  thee;  and  I  promise  thee, 
I  will  not  buy  thee  cheap;  for  I  am  ready  to 
give  him,  in  return  for  thee,  his  life. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  133 

And  as  she  Hstened,  she  started;  and  when  I 
ended,  she  was  silent;  and  as  I  watched  her, 
she  trembled  a  very  little,  and  grew  pale. 
And  presently  she  said  slowly:  Thou  hast 
placed  me,  indeed,  in  an  extremity;  and  very 
sore  indeed  is  my  perplexity,  to  know  what  I 
should  do.  And  what  if  I  refuse  to  come? 
And  I  said  in  a  low  voice:  It  will  go  hard 
with  thy  husband,  in  thy  absence.  Ah! 
pippala,  I  pitied  her,  even  as  I  spoke.  And 
I  steeled  myself  against  compassion,  saying 
to  myself:  No  matter  if  she  suffers  a  little 
now;  for  very  soon,  I  will  make  it  up  to  her,  a 
thousandfold  and  more. 

And  after  a  while,  she  sighed  and  said 
again:  How  can  I  believe  thee,  who  hast  lied 
to  me  so  often,  and  whose  purpose  only  too 
well  I  understand?  Yet  how  can  I  resist  one 
who  can  so  easily  effect  by  violence  the  end  at 
which  he  aims,  if  I  refuse?  And  yet,  I  fear 
for  my  husband,  and  what  thou  sayest  may, 
after  all,  be  true.  Wilt  thou  swear  to  me,  thou 
wilt  take  me  to  my  husband?  And  I  said  to 
myself:    She  has  caught  herself  in  the  trap; 


134  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

and  who  will  be  her  husband  but  myself? 
And  I  exclaimed :  Watsatart,  if  I  am  lying  to 
thee,  may  I  fall  into  a  lower  birth!  Ha! 
pippala,  as  I  think,  the  deity  was  listening, 
and  bound  me  in  this  very  body  of  an  ele- 
phant, remembering  my  words,  in  obedience 
to  my  own  curse. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  murmured 
to  himself:  Ah!  liar  of  a  king,  so  after  all, 
thou  couldst  prevail  on  her  virtue  only  by 
making  use  of  me  against  myself,  and  turning 
as  it  were  her  very  heart  into  a  snare.  And 
all  oblivious  of  his  muttering,  he  listened 
eagerly  for  the  termination  of  the  tale. 


XVIII 

And  the  elephant  said :  Pippala,  she  yielded 
at  the  last.  And  she  said,  in  a  low  voice: 
May  my  husband  forgive  me,  if  my  bet- 
ter judgment  is  in  error,  overlooking  my 
own  danger  for  his  sake.  But  it  will  be 
necessary  to  carry  me,  for,  as  I  think,  my 
body  will  not  move  of  its  own  accord.  And 
then,  all  at  once,  she  reeled,  and  would  have 
fallen,  swooning  at  my  feet,  but  that  I  sprang 
forward,  and  caught  her  as  she  fell.  And 
very  carefully  I  lifted  her  in  my  arms,  bereft 
as  she  was  of  sense,  and  in  my  intoxication, 
unable  to  refrain,  I  kissed  her  as  she  lay  un- 
conscious in  my  arms,  and  lo!  she  was  as  cold 
as  ice.  And  I  called  to  my  assistants,  and 
got  her  with  their  help  over  that  wall,  that 
resembled  the  last  obstacle  in  the  road  of 
my  deHght,  and  placing  her  in  the  litter,  I 

135 


136  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

carried  her  away  very  quickly  to  my  palace, 
riding  beside  her  with  a  soul  that  danced  as  it 
were  with  joy  and  agitation,  while  all  the 
while  she  lay  as  if  her  own  soul  abandoning 
its  body  had  stayed  behind  her  in  the  garden, 
refusing  to  be  a  traitor  to  its  trust.  And  as 
soon  as  we  arrived,  once  more  I  took  her  in 
my  arms,  and  carried  her  within,  and  placed 
her,  just  as  she  was,  upon  a  couch.  And  I 
said  to  my  wita,  who  was  waiting:  Bring 
now  very  quickly  fans,  and  snow  and  sandal, 
and  camphor  and  aromatics,  and  let  us  bring 
her  to  herself.  And  so,  as  I  was  fanning  her, 
and  sprinkling  her  with  icy  scents,  all  at 
once,  she  stirred.  And  she  put  out  her  hand, 
as  if  groping  to  feel  who  was  beside  her,  and 
she  murmured.  Water,  water!  so  low  as 
hardly  to  be  heard. 

And  at  that  very  moment,  I  looked,  and 
saw  the  wita,  gazing  at  me  with  his  eye. 
And  he  whispered:  Mahar^j,  shall  I  give 
it?  And  I  said:  Give  it  me,  and  I  will  give 
it  her  myself.  And  I  took  the  water  from 
his  hands,   and   emptied  into  it  the  phial; 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  137 

and  I  put  the  water  to  her  lips,  and  very 
greedily  she  drank.  Ah!  woe  is  me,  I  gave 
it,  and  she  drank.  Ha!  very  wonderful  is 
the  terrible  mystery  of  the  consequence  of 
works,  bound  in  whose  adamantine  chain  we 
move,  and  blunder,  not  seeing  where  we  go, 
not  knowing  what  we  do,  bringing  about  with 
open  eyes  the  very  opposite  of  the  end  at 
which  we  aim.  Ah!  I,  who  would  have 
abandoned  not  one,  but  an  infinity  of  bodies, 
only  to  save  her  from  a  scratch,  only  to  keep 
a  single  hair  from  falling  from  her  head,  I, 
with  these  hands,  I  gave  her  that  water,  and 
she  drank,  while  all  the  while  the  wita  stood 
watching,  like  destiny  in  human  form,  in- 
carnate in  a  body  that  was  destitute  of  any 
heart. 

And  Trishodadhi,  as  he  listened,  mur- 
mured to  himself:  Ha!  better  it  were  to  have 
no  heart  at  all,  than  such  a  heart  as  thine. 
And  all  oblivious  of  his  muttering,  he  listened 
to  the  tale. 


XIX 

And  the  elephant  said :  Pippala,  she  drank, 
and  instantly  fell  back  upon  the  couch,  and 
lay,  paler  than  the  digit  of  the  moon  by  day, 
and  still  as  a  picture  painted  on  a  wall. 
And  I  said  in  exultation  and  triumph  to  my- 
self: Now,  leave  her  and  let  it  work,  and  in 
the  meantime,  I  will  watch  her  till  she  wakes. 
And  now,  all  her  suffering  and  trial  is  over; 
and  little  indeed  shall  she  have  cause  to  com- 
plain of  changing  that  old  husband  for  myself. 
And  I  said  to  my  wita:  Now,  begone,  and 
leave  me  alone  with  her;  and  to-morrow  I  will 
see  to  thy  reward.  And  as  he  went,  that  wita 
whispered  in  my  ear:  Maharaj,  the  business 
is  done.  Now  then,  very  soon,  she  will  have 
utterly  forgotten  all,  and  thy  turn  to  play  the 
husband  has  arrived.  And  he  gazed  at  me  for 
a  moment  with  a  smile  of  evil  omen,  and  I  was 

138 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  139 

troubled  as  I  saw  it,  for  his  eye  resembled 
that  of  a  vulture  sitting  on  a  cemetery  wall. 
Alas!  even  then,  I  did  not  understand.  And 
then  he  went  away,  vanishing  like  Trishoda- 
dhi  in  the  ocean  of  the  world.  Ha!  wise  he 
was  to  disappear,  for  well  he  knew  that  on  the 
morrow,  the  very  sight  of  me  would  have 
been  the  signal  of  his  death. 

And  when  he  had  gone  I  remained  alone  in 
that  chamber  with  Watsatari,  to  watch  till 
she  awoke.  And  I  wandered  up  and  down, 
as  it  were  on  tiptoe,  with  agitated  steps,  while 
the  night  crept  slowly  on,  hour  after  hour,  and 
every  now  and  then  I  stopped  to  look  at  her  as 
she  lay  upon  the  couch;  and  like  a  wild  beast 
in  a  cage,  I  went  to  and  fro,  unable  to  remain 
at  rest,  tossed  here  and  there  by  the  tumult  in 
my  soul,  where  anticipation  and  impatience, 
and  desire  and  triumph  and  delight,  and  doubt 
and  apprehension  jostled  each  other  like  waves 
of  the  sea,  roused  into  disquiet  by  the  wind  of 
passion,  and  yet  pervaded  by  unutterable 
longing  to  grow  calm  and  be  still  at  the 
sight  of  that  lovely  digit  of  the  moon  rising 


140  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

as  it  were  to  quell  it  in  an  instant  and 
allay  its  storm,  by  awaking  from  her  sleep. 
And  in  the  meantime,  the  light  of  the  real 
moon  grew  gradually  stronger,  and  stole  into 
the  room,  as  if  desirous  to  become  reunited 
with  that  sleeping  beauty  that  resembled 
a  portion  of  himself.*  And  seeing  it,  I  said 
within  myself:  Surely  the  moon  is  right,  and 
now  he  shall  have  his  wish;  for  I  am  not  jealous 
of  sharing  her  with  such  a  lover.  And  I  ex- 
tinguished all  the  lamps,  and  threw  open  all 
the  trellises,  and  I  sat  down  on  a  couch  a  little 
way  off,  and  watched  her  beauty  and  adored 
it  as  she  lay,  bathed  in  the  soft  and  silver  light 
of  that  lord  of  heavenly  nectar.  And  the 
shadows  of  the  strings  of  the  moonstones  hang- 
ing in  rows  along  the  windows  fell  over  her  in 
stripes  that  resembled  .the  bars  of  a  cage,  as  if 
wishing  to  keep  her  prisoner  against  her  will. 
And  so  as  I  watched  her  in  ecstasy,  the  sound 
of  the  camphor  ooze  dropping  slowly  every 
now  and  then  on  the  marble  floor  below  mur- 
mured in  my  ear  like  music  and  a  melody  of 

*  The  moon  proper  is  a  male;  but  all  his  digits  are  feminine. 


A  Fetter  of  the  Soul  141 

slumber,  and  played  on  the  fatigue  and  agi- 
tation of  my  soul,  and  at  last,  all  unawares, 
I  fell  asleep. 

And  all  at  once,  I  awoke,  and  started  up, 
and  looked,  and  lo!  the  moonlight  had  all  but 
gone.  And  in  the  darkness,  lit  as  it  were  by 
the  shadow  of  his  last  remaining  ray,  which 
fell  upon  her,  I  saw  her  lying,  absolutely  still, 
exactly  as  she  lay  before.  And  suddenly,  as  I 
saw  her,  I  began  to  tremble  like  a  leaf.  And 
in  the  silence,  I  heard  my  own  heart  beating, 
as  if  it  wished  to  wake  her,  like  the  noise  of  a 
drum.  And  all  my  hair  suddenly  stood  on 
end,  and  the  sweat  broke  out  upon  my  brow. 
And  I  said  to  myself:  Ha!  she  is  very  still, 
lying  exactly  as  she  lay  before,  never  having 
moved. 

And  I  stood  gazing  at  her  in  a  stupor,  and 
listening  to  my  own  heart,  that  beat  in  my  ears 
like  the  surge  of  the  sea.  And  then,  very 
slowly,  I  went  silently  on  tiptoe  up  to  that 
couch  on  which  she  lay.  And  I  bent  over  her, 
listening,  and  all  at  once  I  touched  her  with 
my  hand.     Ha!  pippala,  she  was  colder  than 


142  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

the  marble  floor.  And  she  smiled  in  that 
dying  moonlight,  saying  as  it  were:  Mahardj, 
I  was  right  after  all ;  and  as  I  told  thee,  thou 
hast  stolen  my  body,  only  to  find  it  deserted 
by  the  soul. 


The  Waves  of  Time 


143 


And  many  lave  their  souls  in  the  wave, 
For  brine  is  a  sort  of  breath, 

A  fid  death  is  a  kind  of  life  resigned, 
As  this  life  is  a  death. 

Danda 


144 


The  Waves  of  Time 

And  then,  as  he  listened,  all  at  once  that  old 
Brahman  Trishodadhi  rose  to  his  feet.  And  as 
he  did  so,  he  looked  towards  the  elephant, 
and  lo !  like  a  flash  of  Hghtning,  that  elephant 
suddenly  disappeared.  And  in  his  place  he 
saw  no  elephant,  but  King  Ruru,  standing 
still,  exactly  as  he  lived  before.  And  no  sooner 
had  he  seen  him,  than  King  Ruru  exclaimed 
in  delight:  Ha!  now  my  story  is  concluded, 
and  now  the  curse  is  ended ,  and  I  have  escaped 
from  that  terrible  body  of  an  elephant,  to  re- 
gain my  own  proper  form  of  a  man. 

And  as  Trishodadhi  looked  towards  him, 
almost  abandoning  the  body,  for  wonder  at  the 
thing  he  saw,  all  at  once  his  eyes  almost  started 
from  his  head,  and  every  hair  upon  his  body 
stood  erect.     For  there,  close  beside  the  tree 

10  145 


146  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

stood  Watsatari  herself,  exactly  as  that  ele- 
phant Ruru  had  described  her,  with  her  head 
a  little  bent,  like  one  that  listens,  and  her  great 
eyes  turned,  exactly  as  of  old,  full  upon  Trisho- 
dadhi  himself.  And  at  that  very  moment,  King 
Ruru  shouted  in  amazement  and  in  intoxica- 
tion: Watsatari!  What!  Watsatari!  What! 
have  I  regained  thee  also,  in  addition  to  my  life? 
And  as  he  listened,  all  at  once  the  heart  of 
that  old  Brahman  bounded  in  his  body  like 
a  deer.  And  every  vestige  of  his  purpose  and 
his  muttering  vanished  from  his  soul  like  a 
dream.  And  he  ran  with  feet  that  resembled 
wings  straight  towards  them,  crying  aloud  in 
agony  and  despair,  not  knowing  what  he  said : 
Ah !  she  is  mine.  Ah !  robber  of  a  king,  she  is 
not  thine.  Ah !  she  is  mine.  And  he  reached 
them,  and  ran  between  them,  and  threw 
himself  upon  Watsatari,  and  caught  her  in 
his  arms,  and  kissed  her,  weeping  in  an  ecstasy 
of  grief  and  repentance  and  delight,  exclaiming 
as  he  did  so:  Ah!  dearer  than  my  life;  ah! 
Watsatari;  ah!  noble  wife,  forgive  me,  for  I 
did  not  know. 


The  Waves  of  Time  147 

And  then,  strange!  as  she  threw  around  his 
neck  soft  clinging  arms,  returning  his  kisses 
with  her  own,  there  came  from  her  Hps  a  peal 
of  laughter,  that  rang  in  his  very  face.  And 
as  he  drew  back  in  amazement,  he  looked,  and 
lo!  he  was  holding  in  his  arms  not  Watsatari, 
but  another  woman,  absolutely  strange  to  him, 
who  gazed  upon  him  as  she  laughed  with 
derision  in  her  eyes.  And  she  exclaimed: 
Ha!  Trishodadhi,  I  am  not  blind,  but  I 
see  thee  very  well.  And  now  it  is  not 
easy  to  decide,  between  thy  wife  and  thyself, 
which  is  the  better  lover.  For  as  it  seems 
it  was  not  she,  so  much  as  thou,  that  needed 
a  little  of  that  medicine  of  oblivion,  to 
enable  thee  to  play  the  part  of  an  ascetic,  to 
whom  women  are  as  nothing  in  comparison 
with  austerity  and  penance.  Surely  thy 
love  for  Watsatari  was  wonderful,  for  thou 
hast  utterly  forgotten  all  thy  muttering,  and 
bartered  all  the  moimtain  of  thy  merit  for  a 
kiss.  Yet  this  much  I  will  tell  thee,  to  console 
thee,  that  it  is  not  a  nymph  of  heaven  to  whom 
thou  hast  succumbed. 


148  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

And  then  with  a  laugh  she  disappeared. 
And  as  Trishodadhi  stood,  struck  with  the 
thunderbolt  of  stupefaction,  he  looked,  and  lo! 
Rum  also  vanished,  and  instead  of  him,  Indra 
stood  before  him  in  the  guise  of  a  devotee.  And 
he  looked  with  cold  eyes  upon  Trishodadhi, 
and  said  very  slowly:  O  Trishodadhi,  the 
wise  strive  for  wisdom,  and  gain  at  least  hu- 
mility. But  thine  was  a  false  devotion,  and 
could  not  stand  the  test.  And  now,  as  she 
said,  the  mountain  of  thy  merit  is  utterly  an- 
nihilated, consumed  in  a  single  instant  of  im- 
pure desire  like  a  blade  of  dry  grass  in  a  forest 
conflagration.  And  as  experiment  has  proved, 
regret  for  the  things  of  sense  was  not  extinct 
in  thee,  and  the  sparks  of  vanity  and  egoism 
and  delusion  in  the  form  of  women  lay  lurking 
in  the  ashes  of  thy  soul,  needing  only  a  little 
breeze  of  recollection  to  fan  them  into  flame. 
And  now  thou  hast  allowed  the  sorrow  for  the 
loss  of  old  mundane  ties  of  long  ago  to  conquer 
thy  desire  of  emancipation  and  break  in 
upon  thy  devotion  to  thy  vow.  And  thou 
hast  been  guilty  of  sinister  designs  against 


The  Waves  of  Time  149 

heaven,  springing  not  from  the  seed  of  true 
and  single-hearted  resignation,  but  selfishness 
and  wounded  vanity  and  malice.  Fall  there- 
fore as  a  punishment  instantly  into  the  body 
of  a  dog  without  a  tail.  And  after  that  thou 
shalt  become  an  ape,  and  then  a  worm,  and 
afterwards  a  ravenous  flesh-eating  Rakshasa, 
and  a  jackal,  and  a  domba,  and  a  leather- 
worker,  and  a  chanddla,  and  a  woman,  and 
many  other  such  garments  of  a  guilty  soul, 
and  like  a  drop  of  water  thou  shalt  run  through 
an  interminable  series  of  miserable  births, 
never  discerning  any  end.  For  this  action 
of  thine  has  dyed  thy  soul  with  so  indelible 
a  stain,  that  the  ocean  could  more  easily  divest 
itself  of  colour  and  of  brine,  than  thy  soul  will 
find  it  to  regain  its  crystal  purity,  by  cleansing 
its  essence  of  such  an  inky  blot. 

And  then,  like  a  flash  of  lightning,  that 
culprit  of  a  Brahman  disappeared. 

So  then,  as  the  Moony-Crested  deity  made 
an  end,  instantly  the  Daughter  of  the  Snowy 
Mountain  asked  him:   O  Wearer  of  the  Moon, 


150  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

was  then  the  story  told  by  Indra  as  an  ele- 
phant to  that  crafty  Kalanidhi  as  a  tree,  a 
true  story,  or  a  figment  devised  between  them 
to  delude  him? 

And  Maheshwara  answered:  O  Snowy 
One,  it  was  absolutely  true,  in  every  item  and 
particular  and  detail.  For  Indra  came  to  me, 
and  'I  told  him  all  about  it,  showing  it  to  him, 
exactly  as  it  happened,  in  the  mirror  of  the 
past.  And  even  its  upshot  might  have  taught 
thee,  that  the  story  was  true.  For  he  who 
listens  to  a  recital  of  a  past,  of  which  he  was 
himself  a  part,  resembles  a  swan,  swift  to  sepa- 
rate the  milk  of  reality  from  the  water  of  in- 
vention, and  the  very  slightest  deviation  on 
the  part  of  the  narrator,  giving  rise  to  a  sus- 
picion, and  jarring  on  the  ear  like  a  false  note 
in  a  harmony,  would  have  burst  the  illusion 
like  a  bubble.  For  there  is  no  form  of  per- 
suasion or  deception  so  potent  as  the  simple 
truth. 

Then  said  Parwati  again:  Then  am  I  very 
sorry  for  that  poor  old  Brahman,  who  was 
much  to  be  pitied. 


The  Waves  of  Time  151 

And  the  Lord  of  the  Moony  Tire  said :  Nay, 
O  Daughter  of  the  Snow,  thou  art  in  error. 
Waste  not  thy  pity  on  one  who  deserves  abso- 
lutely none.  For  had  he  really  loved  Wat- 
satari  his  wife,  who  well  deserved  it,  he  would 
never  have  gone  away  and  left  her,  condemn- 
ing her  without  appeal,  unheard,  relying  on 
nothing  but  the  very  fallacious  testimony 
of  his  eyes.  For  there  is  no  degree  of  evi- 
dence, whether  of  eyes,  or  of  ears,  or  of  any 
other  sense,  which  true  love  would  not  utterly 
refuse  to  credit  or  receive,  against  that  con- 
viction begotten  by  love,  confiding  in  its 
object,  seeing  that  love  is  absolutely  free 
from  any  shadow  of  suspicion,  and  clings 
to  its  faith  in  spite  and  in  the  teeth  of  all. 
But  jealousy  belongs  only  to  a  spurious  love 
that  is  really  only  vanity  and  egoism  in  dis- 
guise, and  is  therefore  never  sure,  but  ever- 
lastingly uneasy,  like  Trishodadhi.  And  as 
his  love  was  founded  on  selfishness  and  vanity, 
so  was  also  the  ambition  that  replaced  it, 
and  they  both  failed  miserably  when  sub- 
jected to  the  test.     And  being  thus  unable 


152  The  Ashes  of  a  God 

either  to  trust  in  his  wife,  or  forget  her, 
he  deserves  nothing  but  contempt,  and  came 
to  that  miserable  end  which  destiny  prepares 
for  all  who  dishonour  the  sublime  by  fraudulent 
and  feeble  imitation  or  pretence.  For  pure 
love  resembles  yonder  rock,  that  refuses  to  be 
shaken  by  any  wind  whatever,  and  pure  re- 
nunciation resembles  yonder  bird,  that  floats 
in  the  inaccessible  serenity  of  heaven  far 
above,  not  for  parade,  but  simply  because  it 
is  its  very  nature  to  soar  into  the  blue. 

And  now,  as  I  said,  here  is  Kailas,  and  this 
is  the  termination  of  the  tale. 


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